Golden Opportunity
by CRose
Summary: Ranma Gold Digger This is the final chapter of the story, at least for now, I have more planned, but that will for the sequal when I get around to it. I've tied up a few things, hinted at some others, and plan lots more in the future.
1. Chapter 01

Notes - This is a Ranma / Gold Digger crossover that has intreged me for some time now. I plan to cross this with a number of stories, but it will stay with its main crossover until the end. With Gold Digger it is possble to visit at least four other worlds and I hope to visit all of them before this story is finished. Who knows where I will go from those other worlds, I just need to find the right ideas and plot.   
  
I have to say the Red Priest inspired me to write this with his own story, it just gave me a good number of ideas that I had not considered before. This is the first chapter and it is really long, about 100kb so take your time and enjoy. e-mail me and let me know what you think or if there are any major errors that I may have missed.  
  
My site is at - http://home.talkcity.com/BookmarkBlvd/crose9/  
  
**********  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 01  
By C. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c) 2002  
**********  
  
A sixteen year old Ranma stood at the cave opening looking out over the vast expanse of snow and stone as the storm raged around them. Him and his pop had been in the Himalayan Mountains for several weeks now searching for some fabled training ground that was supposedly hidden in a secluded valley. His father had heard stories of it from his old master, mentioning that he had visited at some time in the past. Genma wasn't sure, but he had hinted that it was where his master became so powerful. Ranma had his doubts about that, he just figured his father was remembering some drunken fever dream that had caught his imagination.  
  
They had just been finishing up his last month of middle school when this trip came up and his father had given him the choice of going to China to find some ancient training ground to finish off the trip before going home or spending a few months here. Ranma chose here because it was something he hadn't done before, they hadn't spent much time in the mountains during the trip and there were some techniques he had yet to master that dealt with the mountains. The thousand fist mountain (or something like that) school that his pop had mentioned at one time a few weeks back, unfortunately he had to harness his Chi more effectively before he could learn it. According to is father anyway, it was to be one of the final things he learned before he knew everything about the family art. Of course Ranma had his doubts about this too, when his father started acting strange and sweating bullets it meant something was up.  
  
The first thing he had learned was that he did not like snow, it was cold and seemed to go on for as long as he could see. Snow sucked and he wished he had taken the chance to go to nice WARM China. At least there it would only snow for a few months out of the year and not this year round crap. He was very happy his father had taken the time to show him how to use his rudimentary Chi abilities to keep warm, otherwise he would have been a frozen Ranmacicle by now. Ranma sighed and looked around the area outside the cave again, this area was dangerous so they had to keep watch for nearly anything strange. Unfortunately his pop seemed to think he needed more sleep than other people since more often than not he used his time on watch to sleep.   
  
Over the years Ranma had learned that his father was an exceptional fighter and a powerful martial arts teacher. He had learned how to do things that would make normal fighters insane. He had met maybe twenty individuals in his life that were trained just as dangerously he had been and he had surpassed most of them in the last few years. Unfortunately his father was an idiot, if it dealt with anything outside of martial arts he seemed to think it was useless. Ranma used to agree with this, but at several of the dojo's they had visited had exposed him to certain things. It wasn't much, even he understood that, but he knew enough to understand that he had to learn more about life outside of martial arts.   
  
He had done this over the years by 'borrowing' martial arts magazines from stores, some comics and other martial arts related material. They contained the most amazing things, stories, ways to look at life, articles, legends, and he could take an article that interested him and show it to his father and they would go look for it or learn it right out of the book. A Master Myagi had shown him how to use the books to expand his knowledge and keep his father satisfied that he was learning martial arts. He had even learned the trick of keeping one kind of magazine inside of another without letting his father know what he was reading. He couldn't do it to many times before his father caught on, but if he found a good technique it was always easy to distract him and learn it.  
  
There wasn't anything to learn in those magazines about one's Ki and Chi, but he had learned a good number of meditation exercises that had helped him find his center for when he did need to use his Ki or Chi. He would spend a few hours a day learning to push his Chi into a visible battle aura, it was very hard and tended to use up a lot of his energy within a matter of minutes, but he was able to hold it longer and longer each time. His father had told him that those of his family were blessed with a greater amount of Chi than a normal person so they were able to put it to greater use than most fighters ever could. It allowed them to run faster, jump higher, and hit harder than almost anyone else. There were several other families that had this talent too, but their school had been designed just for their family and it's high levels of Chi reserves.   
  
"Hey pop, it's early enough, get off your lazy butt and lets go and find that training ground you mentioned."  
  
"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZ...snort." Genma said and rolled back over and scratched his ass.  
  
"Get up pop or I'll do to you what you did to me a few days ago!" Ranma yelled.  
  
ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz...ZZ."  
  
Ranma shrugged, he had warned the moron and he had been getting a little full of himself lately so it was only right to bring him down a peg. He adjusted his heavy weather coat and made sure it wasn't about to fall off or come undone, then walked over to the small fire he had kept going all night to keep warm and stoked it up to see if his father would wake up. The sound of breakfast was a good way to wake either one of them up, but this time his father was far to deeply asleep. Once in position he got into position...and kicked his father out of the cave with a loud grunt.  
  
Genma awoke to a familiar feeling, flying through the air, he had experienced it with the master to many times to forget. He opened his eyes just at the ground was coming up and he screamed, hit the snow and started to roll down the mountain head over heels. "OOOFF....AGHHHHHH....RANMA I'LL GET....AGHHHHHHHHH....NOT THE ROCKS NOT THE ROCKS....AGHHHHHHHH...OOOFFF...." Genma screamed as he rolled down the mountain and landed in a large pile of snow with a grunt of pain. He could hear the boy's mocking laughter even from under the snow. He groaned and decided it was time to show the boy how to be more respectful, a good beating was in order.  
  
Ruuummmmmbbblllleee!!!!!!!!  
  
Ranma just stood back and watched as half the snow on the mountain seemed to come free and flow like water, burring his father and knocking a good amount of dangerous spots free of the unpredictable snow. He wasn't too worried about the avalanche, his father was strong enough to survive a little snow. He just smirked as the snow down below exploded upwards nearly twenty feet as his father launched himself into the air and landed on a rock a few yards away.  
  
"You're going to pay for that boy!"  
  
"Just a little pay back for what you did to me old man."  
  
"I never kicked you down a mountain!" Genma yelled, his face red with rage.  
  
"No, you just dropped kicked me off the top of a water fall!"  
  
"Foolish boy!"  
  
"I believe you said a forty foot drop would be good training, toughen me up and all that." Ranma yelled back with a cruel laugh.  
  
An eerie sounding roar filled the air around the two as they yelled back and forth and they both turned to look as a large white beast like creature rose up out of the snow and shook itself. Standing on its back legs it roared again and started bounding for Genma at amazing speed. Genma screamed in shock and started bounding from rock to rock as he ran up the mountain. Ranma just shook his head, these stupid things were all over the place. They had encountered seven or eight of them over the last few weeks. They had a lot of strength and stamina, but no brains what so ever and could be tricked pretty easily.  
  
Ranma takes a quarter stick of dynamite out of his pops pack and lights the long fuse to wait for the right time to throw it. A few seconds later his father flew passed the cave so he stepped out and noted that the thing, he didn't know if they had a name, was about fifty yards down and gaining. With a lazy lob he threw the lit explosive and counted the seconds in his head to see how close he could get before it went off. He was a martial artist, timing was very important to a martial artist of his skill. The explosive went off to soon, the thing was still several yards away and it wasn't hurt.   
  
Cursing under his breath Ranma waited to see what it was going to do and was surprised to see it rise up slowly, howl at them and run off. Ranma was almost relieved as it ran off, he hated to kill at any time and even if his father did like how they tasted when cooked up he would rather miss a meal than kill them. It was then as he watched the thing run off that he noticed something odd. The monster passed over a small useless hill that led to a cliff and simply vanished, not like it had fallen, he was watching for that. No, like it had taken a sudden turn and just vanished from sight and he could see for miles in that direction.  
  
"Boy, why didn't you kill it?!" Genma yelled as he landed beside Ranma and swatted him on the head.  
  
"I timed the explosive wrong that's why, I was off by a few seconds. Any way it may have been a good idea after all."  
  
"Why is that boy, I was hungry."  
  
"Your always hungry pop and you know it, so shut up."  
  
"That thing ran over that small hill over there and just vanished..."  
  
"So what, it fell off the cliff! Let's make breakfast okay?!"  
  
"You do that, I'm going to go and check this out."  
  
"Boy..." Genma started, but stopped as Ranma bounded away and muttered to himself. "Idiot boy, he is sticking his neck out recklessly. I checked out that area yesterday and it was totally useless, but I'll let him find that out on his own. If he's not back in time for breakfast it's his own problem."   
  
Ranma picked his way carefully across the snow, never taking his eyes off his goal, he had a feeling that if he looked away for to long he would miss something important. Due to the small storm of snow that was still underway he had problems tracking the beasts tracks since they were nearly covered already. From his position above they were pretty easy to see, but when he was right on top of them they were almost totally invisible to the eye. He kept half an eye peeled for the cliff as well and remembered to stay at least fifteen feet from the edge as he moved. The thing had come this way and walked along the edge of the cliff before vanishing from sight, where had he gone?  
  
Creeping forward, Ranma noticed that the snow seemed to be getting a little thinner as he rounded the hill. The wind died down and then he saw the cave in the distance, it was a little bigger than the one they had been using for the last couple of days. Why hadn't they used this to camp in, it was a whole lot better than the other one. He remembered that his father had went over this area the day before, how could he have missed this? Actually Ranma didn't have to think about it all that much, his father was a moron, he could ignore almost anything in favor of food. Their cave had been occupied when the decided to use it for few days, occupied by a bear. It had cooked up a little stringy, but not bad and given them about twenty pounds of jerky to add to their packs.  
  
Idiot old man, Ranma thought as he made his way forward and into the cave. The wind stopped and nearly all sound vanished as he entered, it caught him by surprise and he spun around to see what was going on. Ranma gasped, the cave entrance was gone, only a blank wall of snow greeted him. Tapping at the snow he found it to be almost solid, like ice, he had never seen anything like it before. He turned around and noticed that the cave led deeper into the hill, every few yards was a weird looking torch that lit up several yards of the cave as he moved. At about ten minutes in he noticed that the torches had turned into electric lamps and that the floor was made out of cement.  
  
"What the hell is going on here?" Ranma muttered to himself as he wandered down he hallway. Then he came to a door that seemed to be made out of metal and painted with the picture of an attacking dragon. Then he noticed a small sign off to the side written in Japanese, he blinked in surprise, then it started to scroll words across it's small screen.  
  
GREETINGS STRANGER, YOU HAVE REACHED THE ENTRENCE INTO SHRANGRI-LA, THE HIDDEN CITY OF KNOWLEGE AND PEACE. ALL WHO ENTER ARE REQUESTED TO BRING PEACE AND HARMONY WITH THEM OR THE DOOR WILL NOT OPEN.   
  
"Huh?"  
  
WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENTER?  
  
"Sure."  
  
REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED, THERE ARE A FEW THINGS THAT NEED TO BE UNDERSTOOD ABOUT SHANGRI-LA. IT IS HIDDEN FOR REASON AND TO REACH IT A SECOND TIME IN THIS MANOR IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE, MAGIC PROTECTS IT AND IF YOU LEAVE YOU MUST HAVE ONE OF THE KEEPERS PERMISION TO COME BACK. SECOND...TIME FLOWS DIFFERENTLY BEYOND THE DOOR, FOR EVERY DAY THAT PASSES WITHIN, ONLY AN HOUR WILL PASS IN THE 'REAL' WORLD.   
  
"That is cool."  
  
PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME.  
  
"Um...Ranma Saotome."  
  
WELCOME TO SHANGRI-LA RANMA SAOTOME  
  
To his surprise the door groaned loudly and swung open without him touching it, light pouring into the hall and illuminating Ranma as he witnessed his first step into Shangri-La. Beyond the door was a surprise, it was huge city with large buildings, modern sights, and...he smelled food and smiled. Then he saw there was someone there to greet him, a rather large man that looked like a body builder, he was a little over six foot tall and totally bald. Ranma noticed a peaceful look in his eyes even though he was tensed up as if expecting a fight.  
  
"Hello Ranma Saotome."  
  
"Um...hello."  
  
The man smiled. "My name is Kahn and I have been asked to show you around while you are here in the city."  
  
"Ah...sure, can we get something to eat first?" Ranma asked as his stomach made its wants known, rather loudly. He grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.  
  
Kahn just laughed. "I take it you smell the food?"  
  
"Um...yeah, I haven't had a decent meal in some time now."   
  
"Come along, I'll take you to a great Japanese place just up the road."  
  
"Um...I don't have much money with me, is there some way I can barter for the food?"  
  
"Not to worry Ranma, for now the food is free of charge, there are very few that can pass through that door into Shangri-La."  
  
"Huh, what do you mean? It seemed simple enough to get inside, no problems what so ever actually."  
  
"Not so, only those of pure purpose can use one of the doors to enter, your father was found wanting yesterday when he neared the door and it did not make itself known to him. You on the other hand are a different story. When you were detected by the magic of the doors our magic users were alerted and they used their powers to look over various parts of your life to see if you could pass any of our other tests for entrance. There are several seers around right now that want to hunt your father down and make his existence as bad as what he has done to you over the years." Kahn said as he looked a little embarrassed.  
  
"Pops is an idiot, but I don't want to kill him, he is my father and the only family I have left."  
  
"You don't have worry to much, our laws prevent us from doing against him, but there are some people that would like to talk to you."  
  
"Sure, whatever, first the food." Ranma said with a grin.  
  
Kahn laughed. "A one track mind, huh?"  
  
Ranma's stomach growls, loudly.  
  
Kahn just smiles and points out the small restaurant just down the block. "We'll grab some food there. Eat as much as you want, we are used to big eaters like you."  
  
It was called 'Chan's' and the place reminds Ranma of any number of places he had eaten at over the years as he and his father trekked all across Japan looking for training grounds. As he was entering the place he saw Kahn wave at the cute girl in a Chinese pantsuit of yellow and red. Ranma just smiled and ordered several bowls of food and finished them off Saotome style, so half an hour later he was full and happy again. With the Saotome bottomless pit slightly appeased Ranma decided that he wanted to see more of the city. This place was fascinating, he had never expected to find a large city like this out here in the middle of nowhere.  
  
"So what is this place for?"  
  
"We guard and protect others from the 'Library of Time', this entire city sprung up around us for that one purpose. Over the years things have changed slightly, but that is still our main goal, though we have others now. We collect all types of information and store it in the Library, we also specialize in helping people if we can, though that one is a little hard to do with us as isolated as we are."  
  
"You collect information?" Ranma asked. He remembered one of his old teachers mentioning something long ago, knowledge is power, he had been collecting little things for years from all those magazines he had read. Maybe this place could help him find out how to fix some of his problems?  
  
"Yes, is there something your wanting to know?"  
  
"My idiot father trained me in the art of the Neko-ken."  
  
"I don't know that one, but if our seer's reaction to your life is any indication I figure it was a bad thing?"  
  
"The Neko-ken is a very powerful technique, unfortunately it can't be used unless I am insane, I want to either master it so I can use it or find a way to get rid of it."  
  
"I am the current Librarian here in the city, lets head on over there and see if there is a book on the style and a way to help you out."  
  
"What, that easy?"  
  
"We are a very simple people Ranma, but we are also very willing to help others out. Your father has done some horrible things to you and the seers asked me to help you out and their opinion is very important to us. They help us to maintain the peace of this city and to help those like you."  
  
"Ah...I see."  
  
Kahn led him towards the center of the city and to a building that kind of reminded him of the large amphitheater in Sydney, Australia. His father had taken him there to spend some time with the native people who had devised some truly destructive talents. Aborigines or something like that, they had been a lot of fun to mess around with and could use some truly bizarre weapons. He had learned most of their various ways of fighting in the eight months he was with them and they in turn had learned from him the basics of the his family school of martial arts. The biggest thing he had learned though was thousands of little things dealing with plants and animals, how to make poisons, skin animals and make clothing, how to survive in the wild without the proper equipment and such.   
  
Shaking his head, Ranma forgot about his trip to Australia and stepped inside the large building. To his surprise it was like one giant room filled with people sitting at tables reading and discussing things. To his surprise there was not a bookshelf in sight, not one in the entire room. The only thing out of place was a rather large machine set in the middle of the room, it was shaped like a piece of artwork with a large crescent moon on the front and a small...conveyor belt set up running in five directions around the machine. Ranma was about to ask where the books were when he saw a girl walk up the machine and talk to it in a strange language, a second later a whole opened up from the machine and three large books landed on the belt.   
  
"So Ranma what do you think of the Library?" Kahn asked.  
  
"I expected books."   
  
"Most of the books are kept in a sub dimension and the reader over there can get them for you to examine, the originals can not leave the Library Ranma, but we can make a copy of a book if it isn't on one of our restricted knowledge lists. Let's see if there is something on that technique of yours."  
  
They stepped up to the machine and Ranma was surprise when it spoke to them in in Japanese. "Welcome to the Library of Time, how may I be of use?"  
  
"There your books Ranma, you have to ask it." Kahn said.  
  
"Um...I want something on how to master the Neko-ken...and other advanced martial arts forms and techniques." Ranma said, adding in the second part quickly.  
  
"Please state a more precise description of the books desired, there are currently twenty three books of that type in the Library." The machine said.  
  
"The five most in-depth." Kahn said.  
  
Five large books plop out and move along the belt until they stop in front of Ranma, he notices the titles. The advanced Egyptian fighting arts, Power of the Musk Dragon Arts, Advanced Ki Techniques and Training, Amazon Secrets, and The Kami Ha Mi Ha detailed as Fact or Fiction. Kahn looks over the titles and frowns a little, there was enough knowledge there to make Ranma a very powerful fighter. He really hoped he was as worthy as the seer's said he was.  
  
"There you go Ranma, you know those are books I haven't had a chance to read through yet. I usually have to translate all the new books, but it looks like these were done by my predecessor."  
  
"You have to translate them? What are you talking about, all of these are in Japanese..."  
  
"The main Library is a separate dimension than this one Ranma and off limits to everyone but me, it is a very dangerous place where legendary animals make their home and feed off each other. One needs either high amounts of magic or technology to survive the area. The books are from all time and world in existence, one just has to find them and that is extremely hard to do. This means they are in thousands of different languages, as Librarian it is my job to translate them into readable languages, this machine is like a massive computer. I enter all of a books info into it and it can translate it into any language that it knows almost instantly, it uses a kind of energy to matter converter to create the books."  
  
"Huh?" Ranma asked in confusion.  
  
"Never mind, the machine can make the books in any language."  
  
"Oh...cool, let's see what he have here." Ranma said and took everything over to a nearby table and opened the first book. At first Ranma just flipped through it, but he quickly found that it was like a giant training manual and was soon so absorbed that the didn't see Kahn walk off a few minutes later. Ranma lost track of time as he read, right in the middle of the first book he found the descriptions of how the Neko-ken was supposed to be taught and wanted to throttle his father. He had the pit correct, but the child had to have been trained in number of specialized meditations that would allow them to slowly take on a more feral state even before they were lowered into the pit, complete with head and groin protection to protect the eyes and family jewels. Once one finished that part the starved cats would be removed and treated if they needed it. The student, now in a feral state was allowed to sleep off the training without any treatment. Then once he woke up he was tossed some clothing and food and ordered to use his meditations to better focus his mind while a single small cat was sent into the pit ever six hours. The book said that the student would, with the help of the mediations, be able to control his fear and over come the side effect while at the same time slowly mastering his mind, body, and fear into the dreaded Neko-ken. Ranma also found that a good number of the skills he had were because of the training, skill his father had taken credit for.   
  
His Ki claws for example were a manifestation of his cat side, he had been forced to make them so that he could be more cat like in his feral state. Kind of like using a sledge hammer to kill a fly, his strong Ki abilities were started up during that training, as was his quick healing abilities, and increased abilities. He had been subconsciously tapping into the Neko-ken all his life, only his fear had kept him from using it completely. Ranma also learned that once learned, the Neko-ken would affect everything in his life from his views to his actions subconsciously. It could not be removed with messing up his mind and either killing him or driving him insane.  
  
There also seemed to be a time limit for how long one could go without finishing the training and he was long past it. Ranma's aura flared up and nearly destroyed the chair he was sitting in as he cursed his father in every language he knew. There were not to many failures detailed in the training, but he hoped that he could lesson the effect of the fear by mastering the meditation techniques he could control his fear of cats. While he was there he went through the other books as well and learned about techniques that would make him faster and stronger and more powerful. The Amazons book detailed forbidden techniques that were some of the most fascinating thing he had ever seen.  
  
The book on the Musk was just as fascinating, but dealt with areas that didn't interest him as much as the others. It seemed the Musk were very dependent on their physical strength to fight and the book did have one technique that he though he would come in handy and used a handy coping machine to copy that section of the book and complete copies of the other three. He was going to be busy for some time to come, but he had to be careful as well to not let his father get his hands on these techniques. The old fool would try to steal them and use them for all the wrong reasons, his pop was a master teacher but a total idiot when it came to other things.  
  
"Ranma!"  
  
He turned to see Kahn walking over. "Hi Kahn, thanks for the books they are going to come in handy."  
  
"Did you find what you were looking for?"  
  
"Yeah, unfortunately I may not be able to do anything about my problem."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"After learning the first half of the technique like I did there is a four year period where it is possible to convert the fear into the true Neko-ken."  
  
"How long ago did you learn it?"  
  
"About eight years ago, pop taught it to me when I was only seven."  
  
"Hmmm, there may still be a way for you to get cured, there are hundreds of people in the city that can use varying skills like magic and Ki and other odd forms of energy. We don't have any Jurians in the city at the moment but we can see what can be done."  
  
"A Jurian?"  
  
"Nobles from a far off Kingdom that can access powers just below that of a god, they can be quite useful at times."  
  
"Um...right."  
  
"So what would you like to do first?"  
  
"I need to get some training in, there are several techniques in these books that I want to learn while I'm here."  
  
"Do you want to learn them on your own, or would a teacher be more helpful?"  
  
"There is someone here that could help me learn these?" Ranma asked in surprise, he had thought this was a city of...well, geeks.  
  
"We guard the Library of Time, there are accomplished fighters here at all times."  
  
"A teacher would be a great help."  
  
Kahn had led him across the city to an isolated section that, to Ranma's amazement, sported several large buildings used as dojo's and training grounds. They crossed a couple of bridges and entered a small walled off compound that looked like something out of the Shogunate era in Japan. There were two old men waiting for them as they entered the house and dropped off their shoes. They rose and Ranma was able to get a better look at them and judge their skills a little better.  
  
The first was dressed in a simple white silk Gi decorated with dragons at battle, he had a build that told Ranma that he had been training in martial arts for most of his life and had more power than what was obvious to the eye. Ranma didn't think to much of it though, his old man had the same feel and he was a thief and an idiot, just a good fighter. The guy also had a set of traditional Katana at his waist like a Samurai of old would carry and they looked like they had seen a lot of use too. He had wild white hair that hung down his back in waves, sectioned off with bits of string, there were scars on ever bit of exposed skin on his body, from his eyes and cheeks to his harms to the toes on his feet.  
  
The second guy was a bit of a weird one, even for Ranma's jaded experience. Not to many guys could walk around in a skin tight black body suit and still look as dangerous as this guy did. He was just under six foot and looked to be in his late forties, the edges of his hair just starting to turn white and a scruffy looking beard that just seemed to just fit him perfectly. Ranma could feel massive amounts of power inside the guy as well and Ranma knew that he did not ever want to get on this guys bad side.  
  
"Ranma, I would like you to meet Master Kaori and Dr. Diggers." Kahn pointed to each of them respectively.  
  
"Hello." Ranma said with a little bow.  
  
"Kahn tells me you were trained in the Neko-ken?" Master Kaori asked.  
  
"Yes sir, my pop found a training manual that described the first half of the training and put me through it."  
  
"How old were you when you did this?"  
  
"Just before my eighth birthday sir."  
  
"He used the corrupted version that has been floating around for some years now, the pit of cats, sausage and repeated attempts?"  
  
"Yes sir..."  
  
"What do you say Theo?" Kaori asked his friend.  
  
"I'm not sure, my wife is more up do date on martial arts than I am and she did study under some of the best master on this world and Jade. Still from what I am seeing here of the boy's aura he has been trained in several of the more deadly techniques, his aura is wild and chaotic affecting his surroundings in odd little ways. I'd almost say that he was cursed in some way."  
  
"Cursed?" Ranma asked, wondering just who this guy was.  
  
"Yes, your aura is very odd, almost impossible for me to read accurately. Have you and your father ever visited any places that were said to magical in nature?"  
  
Ranma snorted. "Pops seeks them out and more often than not finds them, we have been all over the world looking for new fighting techniques, both new and old ones. I've been inside the Cave the Dragon, Pit of Never Ending Doom, and a whole bunch of others, dozens of temples and monasteries where I leaned mediation, healing arts, and more of the Art."  
  
"How about abandoned cites and such?"  
  
"Yeah, those too, but we never stayed around after searching the place for new forms of the Art."  
  
"What is the name of your style?" Kaori asked.  
  
"Saotome Anything Goes Martial Arts."  
  
Kaori frowned. "Anything Goes?"  
  
"Is there a problem?" Kahn asked.  
  
"Yes, I will not be able to teach him."  
  
"What?! Why?!" Ranma nearly yelled.  
  
"Anything Goes is a style that I have no love for, the Grandmaster Happosai is the worst bastard I have ever met. His school is notorious for theft, murder, and lechery. Any student of the school would be just as affected by the school as its victims, Happosai has trained several individuals in his Art and they are all very dangerous and unstable individuals. I...refuse to train you." Kaori said and walked out of the room.  
  
"I don't thing he has ever refused to teach anyone before." Kahn said quietly.  
  
"Who is Happosai?" Ranma asked.  
  
"You don't know?" Dr. Diggers asked in surprise.  
  
"No, I've been on the road all my life training with my pop, he has never mentioned the name before."  
  
"I think I may have heard of him, but I'm not sure where." Kahn said.  
  
Dr. Diggers crossed his arms and shrugged. "Master Happosai is a little over three hundred years old, he uses his Chi and Ki abilities to keep alive. He also uses his martial arts to do whatever he wants to women, he steals their underwear and absorbs the female chi out of them to make himself stronger. He will not listen to anyone and is good enough in the arts to make most masters think twice before attacking him right out. I don't know much more about him, but my wife could tell you since she may have trained under him at one time."  
  
"I doubt that." Ranma said.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Huh? Oh...I have been told to never teach my school to a girl, never."  
  
"Who told you that?"  
  
"My father, he thinks women are weak and useless."  
  
"Weak and Useless?" Kahn asked. "How could anyone believe that?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "So far he has been pretty much right on that score, in the last decade of training I have yet to meet a girl that could hold her own against me. Even then I would not fight a girl in the first place, I don't like to hit girls, ever."  
  
"You'd be surprised what girls can do Ranma."  
  
He shrugged.  
  
"Dr. Diggers, if Master Kaori will not teach Ranma what he needs, would your wife be willing to? She is a better fighter than Master Kaori and could teach him some of the other stuff he needs too."  
  
"I already know what I need to!" Ranma growled. "I don't need some girl helping me to fight!"  
  
"Why do you say that?" Asked an amused female voice.  
  
Everyone turned to see Julia Diggers walk in and head over to her husband, she was just a little shorter than Dr. Diggers, had long red hair and was wearing a colorful outfit that showed off her body. Surprisingly she looked to be in her early twenties and a well toned body that only years of training can achieve. She looked Ranma over and dismissed him as a threat almost instantly. This irritated Ranma more than he was willing to admit and glared at the woman in front of him.  
  
"Your a girl, that's way."  
  
Mrs. Diggers blinked, looked down at her ample tits and hefted them experimentally, they bounced enticingly when she dropped them and nodded. "Yep, I'm a girl. I never expected a thing either..."  
  
Dr. Diggers and Kahn just laughed.  
  
"Hey cut that out!" Ranma yelled and turned bright red.  
  
"No matter what you have been told Ranma, women can fight just as well as men. The only advantage you have is a male's strength while women are faster than most men. Depending on what type of martial arts a girl is taught they can negate any advantage a man may have through training."  
  
"No, I don't think so. I've met a whole bunch of girls in my life and none of them were all that good at fighting."  
  
Julia nodded, she had met this kind of thinking before and always had to prove the speaker wrong. I just irritated her to no end, she was a mother, a fighter, and she had ever intention of kicking this kids ass. "Alright then, I challenge you to prove yourself right, lets step outside and have a little match. If I win you will make yourself my student and allow me to changer your opinions on some of your view while I train you to be a better fighter."  
  
"I don't hit girls." Ranma said stubbornly.  
  
"I'm not a girl, I'm a master of my martial art and I say mine is better than yours boy. Are you a coward?"  
  
"You take that back!" Ranma yelled. A small part of his mind cursed itself for falling for that line, again. "Let's just step outside then."  
  
Julia and Ranma walked out the back door and into the back yard of the house, as this was Master Kaori's house it was designed for just such fighting and training. It was large enough to hold twenty students easily as they all trained. Even now there were several students out there and they made room for a master getting ready to pound on a new student, they had seen this before and always got a good laugh out of the show. Dr. Diggers sighed and wondered how often his wife was going to do things like this, she seemed to get into more fights than even he did. As for Kahn he was intrigued, he was a Librarian so only got to fight with monsters and stuff, it had been years since he had actually seen a fight between a couple of humans. This was proving to be a most interesting day, he thought to himself.  
  
"Are you ready Ranma?" Julia asked.  
  
"Bring it on lady, I promise not to hurt you to much." Ranma said with a smirk.  
  
Dr. Diggers rolled his eyes.  
  
From some unknown signal both fighters launched forward in a blur, there was an impact of flesh where they connected and Ranma flew back in shock from a blow that had been faster than he had ever seen. He could already feel a bruise forming on his shoulder as he landed on his back and rolled. Me and my big mouth, he thought as he came to his feet. Julia had also gotten him in the chin with that hit and he shook his head as if he was dizzy and smirked as the girl came in for another attack.  
  
He was surprised to note that she looked a little disappointed, but didn't think much of it as he suddenly twisted and tossed her over his shoulder. She landed in a roll and was back in front of him in an instant as they started to trade blows at incredible speeds. The Julia lashed out with her foot and hit him in the stomach, chest, and face in quick succession. Dazed, Ranma lashed out instinctively from years of fighting his father, and kneed Julia in the face, spun around and slammed her into the ground. She rolled out of the way before he could hit her and made a small crater in the ground.  
  
"Not bad."   
  
"I'm sorry about that, it was instinctive."  
  
"Quite holding back." Julia growled.  
  
"I don't want to hurt you."  
  
"Don't worry about me."  
  
"I have no choice lady."  
  
They blurred again and loud crack that echoed across the yard, almost as if someone had broken the sound barrier. Then Ranma staggered back several steps as bruises formed all over his face and the front of his shirt was turned to confetti. Julia just smiled and glared at him, this was more than she had expected from one so young. This Anything Goes may have had a bad reputation but it was differently effective if a teenager like Ranma could hold out like this against her.  
  
"Do you yield and accept the terms?"  
  
"Not yet." Ranma growled and shot forward again.  
  
Ranma wasn't holding back anymore, this fight was more serious than he had thought and he had given his word. He couldn't fail or he would trapped her being taught by this woman that was...kicking his ass worse than his father ever had. This time the took the fight to the air and used the signature moves of his school against Julia, but it was like trying to hit a ghost as the woman seemed to be everywhere at once. He took blows to his back, arms, chest, and face as they bounced around the area, but it was pretty obvious that she was the better fighter since he was the one bleeding. All he had managed to do was get her outfit a little dusty.  
  
Why in the hell was he losing, he thought, he had taken out fighters that were much better than him on any number of occasions. Was she that good, could she actually stand up to his family style at its most deadly? Ranma didn't have time to think about it as Julia smiled suddenly and he had a sinking feeling that he hadn't had in years, her leg snapped out and hit him in the back of the head and everything went black.   
  
Ranma crashed to the ground and lay there in a heap as Julia landed lightly and just shook her head. She was barely winded as she walked over to Ranma and knelt down to tap some shiatsu points to wake him up. "Wake up Ranma, you lost."  
  
"..." Ranma looked at her and sighed as he sat up, rolled to his knees, and bowed to her. "I agree to be your student, Master Julia Diggers." Ranma said tiredly, but formally.  
  
"Excellent, go have Kahn show you were to get cleaned up. I am leaving for home in a few hours."  
  
"Alright." Ranma got up and slowly made his way into the house where Kahn led him off.  
  
"Are you sure this is a good idea, dear?" Dr. Diggers asked his wife.  
  
"Your not a fighter dear, that boy has the potential to be incredibly good and is already showing signs of it. He can't be more than fifteen and he could give a lot of my students a run for their money. He is unconsciously tapping his Ki to augment his actions such as speed and strength, to do those glorious jumps and I'll bet he can even heal near fatal damage in a matter of days."  
  
"Julia, he is arrogant and completely uneducated from what I have seen."  
  
"I take it you didn't hear much of his story from Kaori?"  
  
"Nothing really, I'm just going off my first impression of him."  
  
"Ranma has been on the road all his life according to what Master Kaori told me a few minutes ago. He went to check up on the boy after he left room earlier and called me over from the Library to check him out as a possible student since he won't have anything to do with the Anything Goes style."  
  
"I still don't understand."  
  
"Like I said, Ranma has been on the road all his life so he has no school, no friends, no fun or games, just training day in and day out all day long. His father has been delinquent in a number of areas and I plan to correct this."  
  
"That's fine, I trust your judgment on this, but what about all our other house guests?"  
  
"We do have that large underground complex, honey. Dozens of rooms, labs, and other interesting things. We even have that room that the girls gave me last year to practice my special moves in."  
  
"That's fine by me, but then what about his father?"  
  
"I do not like that man and from what little of what I've heard so far he is a horrible father. Ranma needs to be helped with his problems and I'm willing to bet that his father has no clue just what he has done to his son or doesn't care."  
  
"We can't just take the boy from him..."  
  
Julia glared.  
  
"...don't give me that look dear, it is against the law to just kidnap a boy from his father no matter how much we may think it justified, we have no poof and even then it would still be wrong. He has been with his father for years now, I doubt he would willingly leave him."  
  
She sighed. "Yeah I know, I just want to correct those idiotic things that were done to him."  
  
"Well...he has agreed to be your student."  
  
"Let's just hope he keeps his word."  
  
**********   
  
For the first time in a long time Ranma was on his own, he wasn't very comfortable with it either. Of all the things he hated to be, alone was one of the few that never went away. Here and there he had made a friend while on the road, sometimes for a few days, sometimes for a few months, but he was always forced to leave them behind in the name of training. Over time he had thrown his heart into the training to keep the pain of being alone away. Even to this day he missed his friend Uc-chan from when he was six, but they had eventually left him behind too. Now he was alone, he couldn't remember a time when his father hadn't been around. Sure his pop was an idiot, but he was always there to push him when he needed it.  
  
He had lost that fight, against a girl at that, his father would disown him if he ever found out about it. Still, Ranma had to smirk a little, she was dammed good at what she did, he hadn't felt that outclassed in a fight in years. He had been kicking his father's tail for some time now, this fight had been on a whole new level and he was excited about finding a worthy teacher to make him stronger, it had been a long time since he felt like this. But what would happen to him when he was out training with Julia?  
  
Would his pop stand back and watch or try and intervene in some way so that they could continue their training trip? Ranma didn't have to think on that one, his father was obsessed with his training and did everything in his power to make sure he was the best in every way physically. He was glad he had learned to sharpen his mind as well, to a better person than his old man was his life's quest. This Shangri-la seemed to the perfect place to help him gain some of that skill, but how long would he have to be here before he could leave and continue on with his life?  
  
With a sigh Ranma followed Kahn into the house and into the bathroom, he stripped out of his clothing and missed the shocked look on Kahn's face as he took his shirt off. His chest and back were covered in scars of varying sizes, they were from the Neko-ken training, some training accidents, and his father's daily sparing sessions. It had been several years since he received something truly bad enough to scar him, but before that he had barely survived the training. There was no halfway with his father.   
  
Ranma raised his arm and clenched his fist until the veins stood out on his arm, he had earned a lot of skill over the years, but this last fight had proven the didn't have enough to skill as of yet. That was going to change, he hated to be second best at anything, it just gave his father another excuse to call him names and hurt him more. He stepped into the shower and cleaned himself up for the first time in some weeks and was happy for the hot water as it relaxed his bruised muscles. That was another reminder of his failure, he was a student of Anything Goes, a style he excelled at, but Master Kaori wasn't the only Master to refuse to teach him because of the school's reputation. His father had complained about it before when he was younger, but he had understood enough at the time to know that a good number of the training 'games' were actually illegal. He grinned as he remembered the beating that he had given his father when he learned just how they had been getting food and money off of people.  
  
He sighed as he got out of the shower and noticed that his clothing had been replaced by a completely clean set. All the holes were fixed and the stains were gone, everything looked brand new to him. Even weirder was that he could tell that his clothing hadn't been moved an inch from where he had tossed them. This place was just plain weird, they took such things as magic as if it was as common as sunlight. Either that or they had ninja's running around the place that could conceal their auras and not alert him to their presence. He shrugged and decided he would worry about it later, he had to go and see his new teacher.  
  
He headed back outside and noticed that Master Julia and her husband were waiting for him, she looked nervous for some reason. He ignored it though and waved to her as he walked up. "What's up?"  
  
"As my student we will have to head back to my home in America."  
  
"America...oh...alright I guess, but I can't speak English all that good."  
  
"Where did you learn English?" Julia asks in surprise.  
  
"Me and pop strayed onto an American navel base in Japan and we managed to get the special forces guys to train us in some of their techniques. They really helped me when it came to water techniques and how to survive in harsh conditions. I was also trained in the use of a M-16 and several other types of weapons, but I didn't care for that part to much, it felt like cheating to me so I had them just focus on the hand to hand stuff and bladed weapons. Those guys are experts with small knives and stuff."  
  
"Did they teach you anything else?"  
  
"They tried to help me with my education, but pop said if it wasn't a martial art he didn't want them to know about it."  
  
"That's stupid!"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "That's pop for you, a total moron that thinks brains have nothing to do with being a marital artist."  
  
"You don't think that do you?"  
  
"Naw, but it has been hard for me to learn stuff under pop's nose."  
  
"Well if you give me six months I can fix all that Ranma and improve your fighting skills, but what can we do about your father?"  
  
"I have no idea really, I kind of figured he would come along with us."  
  
"No, you won't get anything done while he is there. He is holding you back by not teaching you the way you should have been taught in the first place. Your skills are very good for one your age Ranma, but you have a talent for martial arts that very few ever have. It's in your blood and I can make you a lot better, but it will take a few months to do it."  
  
Ranma grinned, he like that idea. "Get away from the old man for awhile? I like that idea, I never considered it before, it could work so long as I can find a way that won't make him hate you or me." Ranma thought about if for a few seconds and had an idea. "Your wanting to take me to America right?"  
  
"Yes..."  
  
"How are we going to get there?"  
  
"My husband is a wizard, he is going to teleport us there, it shouldn't take more than a few seconds. Why?"  
  
Ranma blinked, he had thought they would take a plane or something. This would be even better if it worked. "Have Kahn drop a note off to pop after we leave telling him what happened, but nothing about this place, and have your address at the bottom of the letter. It should take hi three to four months to American alone and another two or three to find your house."  
  
"Huh? All he would have to do is buy a plane ticket to the closest city then catch a bus to where we are. A week at the most, not enough time to do anything really." Julia said.  
  
"Naw, pop don't think like that, he's cheap and won't spend money on anything unless it's food. We swam across from Japan to the main land because pop was to cheap to buy tickets on a boat or a plane."  
  
"You swam?"  
  
"Yep, it was a pain in the ass too. "  
  
"Ah, well that is one way to get stronger I guess. I've done something similar at times, though usually not voluntarily."  
  
Dr. Diggers just shook his head as he listened, his opinion of Ranma's father had been dropping steadily ever since he heard about the man. Training was supposed to be hard, not nearly fatal or suicidal stupid. How Ranma had survived the last several years with his father was a complete mystery. Any normal person would have broken in someway, or even died under the harsh conditions that he had been told about. Tossing a child into a pit of starving cats, swimming in the sea for days on end with no rest and sharks hiding below the surface. Even on Jade this Genma would have been killed on sight by the local authorities for his training methods and child abuse.  
  
"What do you think of Ranma's idea Theo?" Julia asked.  
  
"It may work if I cast a spell on the note."  
  
"A compulsion spell, something to affect him subconsciously."  
  
"You could do that?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Oh yes, there pretty easy so long as you don't try to make them go against what they would do normally. This would just make him react in the way we wanted him to, for example, say we wanted him to not eat something like a bowl of rice. To make him forget his hunger would be to hard so I would make him think he was hungry for something else instead, like some apples or chicken. He would go after those instead of the rice that we wanted to save. Just small changes."  
  
"To bad."  
  
"Huh?" Dr. Diggers blinked in surprise. He had been understating the effect to not get on Ranma's bad side.  
  
"Pop's is a thief, a liar, and an idiot. He wants me to respect him as a father and yet is constantly doing things to make me disrespect him even more. About the only thing I will give him credit for is his fighting abilities, they are top notch. I was kind of hoping you could make him into a better person, but that is out I suppose." Ranma shrugged.   
  
Julia handed Ranma a small note pad. "Here, write up a note to him and we'll get it delivered to him."  
  
"Sure."   
  
**********  
  
**********  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 01  
By C. Rose  
(c) 2002  
**********  
  
  
Genma was sleeping, he had been getting ready to go and look for his cowardly son when he just dropped to the floor of the cave snoring loudly. Dr. Diggers stepped from the shadows and glared down at the dirty and horrible man before him. As an Aura Magic user he could read everyone's aura quite easily. Genma's aura was as bad as they could become, the man was self absorbed and petty, he would sell out his friends for a little money without a second though. There were bits and pieces of a caring soul in there, but they were buried so deep he actually had to look for them underneath layers and layers of corruption. What was even worse is that the man's corruption had invaded every part of his being like a plague or cancer.   
  
How this man could have raised someone like Ranma was beyond him, it seemed to almost impossible to him. Their decision to take Ranma away was looking better and better than it had little while ago, this man was monster in the making. For one of the few times in his life he considered using his magic to force someone to do something. He was strong in his chosen art and as corrupt as this man was, he was ripe for possession and other nasty things if they ever found him, if even a little part of him agreed with whatever came after him and it would be over, instant servant/toy.  
  
Holding up the small note that Ranma had written out, he flared up and started chanting as he focused his magic through the paper. This idiot would cause Ranma more and more pain as the years went on, it was time to do something about it. After several minutes he stopped chanting and the paper flared with light and Theodore Diggers grinned, only his father could have done a better job on this spell. He walked over to the sleeping man and taped the note to his forehead, anywhere else and the idiot was likely not to see it when he woke up. The note glowed with white fire and outlined the large man, sending feelers of white magic into his body and through his aura.  
  
Dr. Diggers had knocked out the man for this reason, that much white magic flowing through a corrupted body had to be painful, but he could see changes taking place already and smiled tiredly. It would take time, but the magic would do some of what Ranma had requested. By the time his father reached them in America he would be a changed man, hopefully anyway. It was still possible for the man to throw off the magic of the compulsion, all it took was will power and a bit of bad luck.   
  
That was enough for now, he had done his job, if anything else he could deal with the man again when he showed up. Now it was time to get back to his wife and her newest student, in a flare of light he vanished and reappeared a few seconds later beside his wife. She hugged him and they smiled at the still gaping Ranma who had nearly fainted when he teleported away the first time. They had told him what was going to happen, but who believes in magic in this day and age.  
  
"It is done, I cast a sleep spell on him in the cave and left the note with the compulsion on it. By tomorrow he should be away from here, but I have no idea where he will go after that. The compulsion will make him wait a few months before he heads for America, we should have five months before he shows up."  
  
"Excellent, lets go. Do you have everything Ranma?" Julia asked.  
  
He held up his heavy pack. "Everything I own is in here, lets go."   
  
Kahn came up just then and handed two books to Julia. "Here is the book you asked for, I had to go into the central library to find it, but it seems to be in good condition. The second book is one Gina asked for, could you give it to her when you get home."  
  
"Of course Kahn, thank you."  
  
Kahn turned to Ranma. "Your in good hands Ranma, she can show you things you won't believe, good luck to you."   
  
"Um...yeah. Maybe we'll meet again."  
  
"We should, you have to return those books you know."  
  
"Oh yeah. Heheheheheh." Ranma said and scratched the back of his head.  
  
"We'll make sure he has them back in a few months or the next time one of us comes here again. It should only take a few days to have books made up and we can get the originals back to you."  
  
"Excellent, I look forward to meeting all of you again."  
  
With that Dr. Diggers made a gesture and light flared all around them, the world went white for a second then they were in a living room. Ranma looked around and noted that the place was very well set up. Every thing was either huge or expensive, a super sized TV filled one wall and was showing a cartoon of some kind. There was a hint of electricity in the air and Ranma wondered what it was, his danger sense was going off and it had him on edge. He took a relaxed defensive stance and looked around carefully.  
  
"Is there something wrong Ranma?" Julia asked.  
  
"My danger sense is flaring, the air in here feels funny."  
  
"Oh that, my daughter Gina is a master of science and is always building new and better machines. It takes a lot of power so she built her own power plant down in the lower levels of the house. What your feeling is the power from that plant down below us."  
  
"A power plant...I've seen a few of those in my travels, aren't they usually pretty big and dangerous."  
  
"Not at all in this case!" Said a perky female voice.  
  
Ranma turned to see a really cute girl walking into the room and nearly had a nose bleed at how she was dressed. She was about his height and had long blond hair, glasses that made her eyes look even bigger, and a lecherous smirk on her face. He noted that she seemed to have her eyes glued to his waist for some reason, but couldn't figure out why so shrugged it off as unimportant. She was wearing a pair of tight shorts that hugged her hips and showed of her figure. Up above she had on a baggy t-shirt that seemed to be designed to show off her rather ample chest, her nipples were rather obvious. Less than a year ago this sight would have had him fainting on the spot, but he had leaned to control the reaction. He wasn't as innocent as he used to be thanks to a couple of adult magazines he had found in the trash when looking for food and paper for a fire.  
  
The girl got a gleam in her eye and sauntered forward to shake his hand, it didn't help that she bent forward to give him a good look at her chest and grinned at him. "Hi, I'm Gina Diggers!"  
  
"H-hello..." Ranma said nervously.  
  
"Are you single?" Gina asked as she leaned over and flashed a bit of cleavage at the flustered boy.  
  
Ranma's blood trickled out of his nose and he fainted in shock, he wasn't as innocent, but that didn't mean he could handle really forward girls that looked like Gina did.  
  
"Jinkies! That was unexpected." Gina commented and jostled Ranma around with her toe.  
  
"Gina that was a little much don't you think?" Julia asked as she tried not to giggle. She had forgotten how forward her daughters were.  
  
"Well, he is a little young, but he is so cute I couldn't resist."  
  
"Well be more careful next time, poor Ranma here has been alone almost all his life with only his father as a role model and a poor one at that. I brought him here to train him and help him with a little problem he has with some martial training his father screwed up."  
  
"What problem, can I have....help him out?" Gina grinned and blushed.  
  
Julia sighed, she had heard some stories from the other girl of how Gina had reacted to Séance when he showed up and corrupted him thoroughly. "Calm yourself Gina, he is almost totally innocent of that kind of stuff, his father also turned him into a bit of a chauvinist and we need to work on that as well. As for his problem, he is afraid of cats."  
  
"CATS?! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Gina started to laugh and was soon rolling on the floor, cutely.  
  
"Gina!" Julia yelled. Dr. Diggers took this as a good sign to fade into the back round and disappear.  
  
"...heheheheheheheheheh....s-sorry mom, but Cats? How was that accomplished with martial arts training."  
  
"Well, take a small child, wrap them in fish and drop them into a pit filled with starving cats. Multiple times until student dies or learns technique."  
  
Gina stopped laughing and paled. "W-what?"  
  
"Just what I said, several steps in the training were dismissed as useless by Ranma's father and not used. At least that is what I understand about it, I don't have the full story on what exactly happened.  
  
"That's horrible, who would do something like that to their child?"  
  
"Apparently his father, he went through the training when he was seven."  
  
"What kind of problems will Brittany and Brianna cause him, they are werecheetahs after all, cats."  
  
Julia blushed. "I hadn't even considered them when I offered to help him out."  
  
"Mom!"  
  
"Um...oops?"  
  
"I'll go and explain the situation to them, Brit is in the gym lifting weights and Brianna is in her lab building stuff and giggling madly. I'll head on down to talk to them I guess, is there anything else I need to tell them? I'm assuming he is staying for awhile."  
  
"Oh yes, Ranma should be staying with us for half a year or so while I train him. He is quite talented and has tons of potential for the Art." Julia said as Dr. Diggers appeared behind her suddenly and handed a book to Gina.  
  
"What's this daddy?"  
  
"Kahn asked us to give that to you, said you asked for it the last time you stopped by or something. What is it anyway?"  
  
Gina looked at the cover and read the title. "It's a book on how to develop machines that can affect the mind. I'm trying to build a special helmet for my plane that will allow me to just think what I want to do instead of flipping switches and pushing buttons. There were a few snags with the first one, I asked for this to find out where I went wrong."  
  
"Oh..." (Dr. Diggers is a wizard, he has no clue about the types of machines his daughter can build.) "Well let me know if you need some help or something." He says and walks off in the daze of the unilluminated.  
  
"Sure thing daddy." Gina says and waves good bye. "Hey mom, who is the other book for?"  
  
"Me, if I'm going to help Ranma I have to know about his fighting style. This book is all about the style and history of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Check out the author." Julia says and holds it up for Gina to read.  
  
"Who is Ranma Saotome?"  
  
Julia points to their passed out guest. "You know how the Library works, he will write this or an alternate version of him will write this in the years to come. The perfect way to train him in his own art don't you think?"  
  
Gina giggles. "I would never have thought of that!"  
  
"I'll have to make sure he never sees it though, it could cause problems in the future if he does. I just need to read it and return it in a few days and everything will be fine."  
  
"Well good luck mom, I'll go and talk to Brit and Bri now." Gina said and walked off, she passed Genn as the Rakasha walked in.   
  
"Hello Mrs. Diggers." Genn said and headed over to the prone Ranma and looked at him. "Who is this, he's cute."  
  
"A new student of mine."  
  
"What happened to him?"  
  
"Gina."  
  
"Ah, I understand that completely. Do you need any help moving him any where, the couch or one of the rooms?"  
  
"Sure, drop him off on the couch for me. There's no need to leave him on the floor like that."  
  
Genn nodded and shifted into a very attractive looking guy with a lot of muscles, he finds out almost immediately just how much Ranma's pack weighs and finds that he can't lift it. So he undues the shoulder straps and picks Ranma up, caries him to the couch and sets him down on the couch. Genn's body suddenly shifts again and he turns into a girl of total beauty, short dark hair, average chest and muscular body. She looks herself over and shrugs.   
  
"Is that the type of girl he likes, Genn."  
  
"I'm a little low on energy right now Mrs. Diggers. Ranma's likes are a little vague actually, I shifted to this form by accident. It is the closest I could come to his ideal, I don't think he had much experience with women."  
  
"Your right about that." Julia says as she lifts Ranma's pack, arching her eyebrow at the weight. She hadn't carried anything like this in years, ever since her training under Master Leap. "You better shift to your neutral form Genn, I don't thing Ranma has ever met any supernatural creatures like you before."  
  
Genn nods and shifts back to his original form, a small child like being with long elf like ears. He, for now, just shrugs and sits down in a nearby chair to watch some TV as they wait for Ranma to wake up. Julia puts Ranma's pack in a room down the hall and decides she will wait on telling him about the house and her family until later when he is more ready. This was going to be an interesting six months, that was for sure, she wondered what he would say about this strange town. There was always something odd showing up, evil wizards, leprechauns, werecheetahs, a demon mouse, even Penny's friend Charlotte.  
  
**********  
  
Ranma opened his eyes and sat up slowly, visions of a very well endowed girl flashing herself at him running through his head. He looked around and sighed in relief when he noticed that she was gone and that he was laid out on a couch. He didn't remember sitting down here so figured someone had moved him. Whatever had happened he would figure it out later, right now he needed to find out what was going on. Swiveling around he moved into a sitting position and noticed a weird looking kid watching him curiously.  
  
"Um...hi?"  
  
"Hi, I'm Genn."  
  
"Hello Genn, what in the world is going on?"  
  
"You fainted." Genn said with a smile.  
  
Ranma huphed. "Men do not faint!"   
  
"Then what do you call what you did?" Genn asked in curiosity.  
  
"Strategically removing myself from the situation to plan a counter measures and different ways of attacking." Ranma said wisely, just like his father. He knew it was load of bull shit, but had picked up certain habits from his father over the years.  
  
"Right." Genn said sarcastically.  
  
"Why do you sound funny?" Ranma asked.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I'm hearing your perfect Japanese, and yet your mouth seems to be saying something else. It's like looking at a cheesy dubbing of a movie."  
  
"Oh that, I have a minor amount of ESP that allows people around me to understand what is being said in their native language. I do it automatically, I don't have to even think about it or anything." Genn said proudly.  
  
"What is ESP?" Ranma asked as he scratched the back of his head.  
  
Genn face faulted. "What do you mean what is it? Everyone knows what ESP is, I know, the little four old down the block knows, how can you not know?!"  
  
"...Um...of course I know what it is...I...just wanted to see if you knew...yeah that works." Ranma said quickly.  
  
"Right."  
  
"Well, what is it?"  
  
"If you actually have no clue what it is, it would take me to long to explain. Just think of it as a magical power or something."  
  
"Oh okay, that I can understand I guess." Ranma said as he stood up and stretched, he was starting to feel a little stiff from that fight he had earlier. He spotted a door that lead into the back yard and headed out. Once out on the lawn he started to go through several kata that he had developed over the years to deal with wore out muscles. He had been forced to do some of the oddest things over the years in the name of training. Running for fear of his life in the swamp while various animals chased him, jumping from back to back of gators to keep from falling in piranha filled waters. Wading though bee nests while half asleep because his old man had decided he had been slacking in his speed training, because he had twisted his ankle the day before.  
  
He soon lost himself in kata after kata, eventually starting to move faster and faster while staying fluid and graceful while maintaining his strength. Had he known he was being watched he would have stopped, if he had known who it was a girl he would have been scared, had he not just jumped thirty feet in the air doing an extremely hard kata he would have noticed the hearts in the watchers eyes as she drool at him as she plastered her face to the window of her room. She had her own lab in the house just down the hall from Gina, she was tall and well built and a very different type of person. She was Brianna and she was already making plans to add this boy to her collection of...conquests. She smirked evilly and ran for her bedroom, dirty thoughts running through her head as she envisioned the hunk she had just seen.  
  
Ranma kept his training up for a few hours, he was going though some of the kata that the books had described. He wanted to have them down before he started to master the harder aspects of the moves. Currently he was working on a body hardening move that would let him eventually shatter rocks with a single finger strike. It had been in that Amazon book, but he understood that these were another schools techniques and didn't want to steal them like his old man would. That meant that if he wanted the technique he would have to find a different way to do the same thing or improve on it in some way.  
  
He was not a thief, he would not just steal the move, but what he was trying to do would either work or he would fail. He had done this with several moves over the years by doing this to fool his old man. It had given him an insight that few fighters had, but it had been forced on him because of his way of life. He was also glad for his limited Ki control, it would help him to master the altered versions of the move when he managed to do it. He still had that book on Ki to go through as well since he had only had time to glace through it before. The Neko-ken training had been occupying his time.   
  
Landing in a specialized crouch, Ranma took a deep breath and ignored the sweat as it dripped down his face. It took a lot more concentration than he had thought it would, but he managed to finally tap his Ki and lit up in his battle aura of bright blue light and felt it's warmth fill him. According to the book the move he wanted found the weakest points in a solid object and by forcing a bit of Ki into that point one could cause it to explode violently. The explosion would them pound his body with rocks and harden his body. Ranma had a feeling if he managed to do this he would be in for several weeks of pain if he survived the first explosion. He was strong, but could he just stand there and allow himself to be a center of a violent explosion.  
  
For the next hour or so he sent his Ki senses into the ground around him and completely failed to see what he wanted to. It was only his determination that kept him going after that, he was used to picking up techniques pretty easily. He figured it would only take an hour or so to do what he wanted, it was looking like it would take a lot longer than what he expected and eventually stopped and relaxed. He felt like he had just gone ten rounds in a pit fight and barely won, he sighed and sat down to rest. The final part of his workout was the meditation techniques he had read about, though he rarely meditated, he knew how and quickly went into the trance he needed.  
  
Inside the house Brianna stepped out of her room dressed in a tight pair of shorts and a tank top. She was about six foot and had long blonde hair that fell down about her shoulders, it was covered in brown and black spots. She had blue eyes and a black stripe that ran from above her left eye and down her cheek. For the last three hours she had been watching the hunk in the back yard train at speeds she had never seen a human move at before. As a half clone of her sister Britanny, she had the were-cheetah speed and only half of the weaknesses with things like silver.   
  
She wasn't sure who the boy in the back yard was, but he was absolutely adorable and she wanted to meet him. They had guests at the house all the time, but a lot of them were not used to the strangeness that permeated the town. She wanted to make sure he didn't leave before she had a chance to get to know him...better. Making her way through the house, she practiced the stealth techniques her adoptive mom Julia had shown her a few months before, but stopped in the kitchen when Mrs. Diggers stepped in front of her.  
  
"Brianna."  
  
"What's up mom?" Brianna said nervously.  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"I wanted to meet that hunk in the back yard."  
  
"Well that 'hunk' is my new student and he has been practicing for some time now, I was hoping you and Brittany would stay away until I managed to break him of a fear he has."  
  
"Fear?"  
  
Julia wondered what had happened to Gina and that little talk she was going to have with her sisters, but shrugged it off. "His father tied him up with fish and other stuff when he was a little kid and dropped him into a pit of starving cats."  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
"This has given Ranma an intense fear of cats, if he is around one for to long he will go insane and attack whoever he thinks of as a threat."  
  
"B-but I'm not a cat..."  
  
"You and Brittany do happen to look like cats though, that is why I want you to stay away for now."  
  
Brittany frowned and sighed. "I wanted to meet him to."  
  
"Well you can in a few days..."  
  
BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!  
  
The whole house shakes and the back door is blown off its hinges, slamming into both girls and sending them to the ground. Windows are shattered and a scream is heard from the outside. Julia growls as she throws the door off her and jumps to her feet, reaching for a sword that is not there. Dr. Diggers appears behind her and hands her the weapons she is looking for while Gina and Brittany run into the room. Julia noticed that both girl looked as if they had been fighting over something, she unsheathes the sword and glares at everyone around her.  
  
"What is going on? Are we under attack or did another one of your experiments blow up?"  
  
"Were not sure mom, the blast was in the lower levels and I haven't had time to check on it just yet. Since my room is in the lower part of the house a few levels below, the closest one is here in the kitchen." Gina says as she taps a spot on the kitchen wall and it opens to reveal a powerful computer that was already scanning the damage below. Gina tapped away for a few seconds as she read the status report. Britanny stood behind her and tried to read the computer language that her sister used, but couldn't read a thing on the screen. She wanted to know what was going on too.  
  
"We have an intruder on the third level, whoever it is by passed the regular security on those levels by magic."  
  
"What kind?" Asked Dr. Diggers.  
  
"...I'm not sure yet, the readings are familiar though."  
  
"It's probably Ionis." Said Britanny out of the blue.  
  
"Ionis, why do you say that?" Gina asked as she turned to look at her sister.  
  
Britanny pointed out the back window and into the back yard. "Because Daishi and Zelda are out there fighting with some guy I've never seen before." Britanny said.  
  
"That is Ranma Saotome, a new student of mine, all of you stay here for now I want to see how he handles this." Julia said.  
  
"Julia dear, Ranma is still recovering from his fight with you just a few hours ago."  
  
"I know, but he wouldn't like it if I interfered with his fight. He is full of pride and arrogance and I know the type, we will wait until he either wins or is out of the fight."  
  
"..." Was the general answer, all of them knew not to do or say anything when Julia used that tone of voice.  
  
**********  
  
Ranma could feel the meditation doing what he wanted as he focused in on the area of his mind the usually tried to ignore. There was a dark area that contained his memories of the Neko-ken and he had to remember that horrible time when he was little. Under normal circumstances he would have avoided this, but the book had said he had to learn these techniques if he was ever going to Master the dreaded technique. A shiver ran through him as he actually touched the pain and got flashes of the PIT and a wave of fear him. He grit his teeth and lost his focus as it nearly overwhelmed him, gasping for air he leaned forward and sighed.  
  
He steeled himself and sat up just as his danger sense warned him of something and he went from a sitting position to ten feet in the air in an instant. He saw a rather well muscled girl in a green body suit land where he had been, her fist buried in the ground and created a small crater. Ranma landed several feet away and took up a deceptive and relaxed stance as she studied her. She stood just under six foot and he noticed that she was completely bald. Ranma glared at her and folded his arms across his chest.  
  
"Who the hell are you to attack me from behind?" Ranma snarled.  
  
"Huh?" She said, what the hell kind of language is that.  
  
"Well?"  
  
"I can't understand a word your saying, cute stuff." The bald lady said as she stood up and looked him up and down like a piece of meat. "I'm Zelda and your in my way."  
  
A man dressed in some kind of ninja outfit seemed to appear right behind the girl and he looked Ranma over for several seconds before nodding. "Zelda, he is Japanese and it is obvious that he doesn't know or knows very little English. I'll take care of him, go and finish the mission."  
  
"Hey!"   
  
"Shut up and go Zelda, Ionis need back up for what he has to do."  
  
"Alright, but don't do this again." Zelda said and ran out of the yard.  
  
The man turned back to Ranma and bowed. "I am known as Daishi."  
  
"At least you can speak Japanese."  
  
"Such an honorable language isn't it, now I would like to challenge you young one."  
  
Ranma smirked as he took up a more offensive stance, he may have been tired, but he would never turn down a challenge. "Bring it on."  
  
They leapt at each other and were soon moving at faster and faster speeds, blocking and attacking in ever more impossible patterns. Ranma just continued to smirk as they exchanged blows, he could recognized at least ten different styles of martial arts in his opponents moves. His Anything Goes style was designed to fight just this type of fighter and he was having the time of his life, it was like fighting his father so far. The only difference he could see was that this so called Daishi uses a different style. Ranma spun and dropped to grab Daishi's ankle, using his momentum to send him flying across the yard.  
  
He landed in a roll and was flipping through the air before he came to a stop, but Ranma was on him a few seconds later. Then Daishi changed tactics and grabbed Ranma's hands and grinned noticeably under his mask. "Well punk, since I'm on a time schedule it is time to end this."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Daishi blurred and Ranma felt a number of kicks and punches rain down on him like the wrath of god. Within seconds he had been beaten black and blue and barely noticed impacting against a tree in the back yard or collapsing to the ground in a daze. Pain filled his body, only his iron will keeping him from fainting from the pain. It reminded him of one of his father's crazy training ideas, felt the same too. He coughed up a little blood and crawled to his feet and staggered a little, grinning at the surprised look in Daishi's eyes as they both settled into comfortable stances.  
  
"Your a lot stronger than I thought."  
  
"I won't give up, ever." Ranma panted out.   
  
Daishi bowed his head to acknowledge a true fighter.  
  
They ran at each other with a yell and came together with a the grisly sound of flesh meeting flesh. They turned to look at each other before Ranma fell to the ground, knocked cold by Daishi's superior strength and endurance. He hadn't come out of the final attack unscathed though and dropped to his knees and bit of blood dripped off his lip. He was more than a little surprised, he had thought the boy would be easy to beat. As the fight went on he had learned the hard way just how good the boy was, he only lacked in experience in areas that he himself was very familiar. He rose to his feet painfully, holding his ribs, and walked to the house.   
  
It was at this moment that Julia and Britanny stepped out of the house, Britanny was kneeling by Ranma in a second, checking him over for wounds. She was a little surprised to find that he was almost healing before her eyes. Nothing extreme like her werecheetah healing, it was still pretty impressive for a human. She could see bruises visibly fading as he lay there, his breathing becoming less labored, and his cuts and wounds quickly scabbing. She had never seen anything like it before.   
  
"Well, well, if it isn't the werecheetah. I've been looking forward to this for a long time now." Zelda said as she walked over to Britanny.  
  
"Whatever it is Baldy, go away or I will hurt you."  
  
"Not this time, Lord Talon has made me invincible." Zelda said with a smirk.  
  
"Not against me your not." Britanny said as she stood up to her full seven foot height and cracked her knuckles. She smiled and flashed her fangs, she had been a little bored lately and fight was just what she needed.  
  
Zelda took up a stance and flared up with power. "Daishi has been showing my his Ki attacks and I'm a natural at them because of Lord Talon's augmenting of my body."  
  
"Daishi's Ki attacks have yet to be very effective against me Zelda, go away and I won't put you in the hospital."  
  
"Hah!!" Zelda yelled and struck out with a series of kicks, but Britanny yawned as she blocked them with ease.   
  
"Is that all you've got Baldy?"   
  
"Not by a long shot you hairy monster!" Zelda yelled.  
  
An aura flared around Zelda, glowing a slight yellow color, and she brought her hands forward to fire off a blast that struck Britanny in the chest. The werecheetah was actually surprised when she actually felt pain, a lot of pain and was blown across the yard. Zelda crowed in victory and took off after the werecat. Britanny snarled as she thrust her arm out and used it to rebound off the ground and flip to her feet and sliding back several feet, her face a mask of rage.   
  
The instant she was fully stopped Britanny shot forward to sucker punch the bald woman, but much to her surprise, Zelda's aura flared up and she started to block the high speed punches. Britanny's eyes narrowed and she suddenly altered the pattern of her punches as Julia had taught her. She grinned as hundreds of punches slammed into the woman and sent her flying back, where she slammed into the side of the house. Zelda didn't stay down though and she slowly rose to her feet and grinned.  
  
"I told you, I am invincible now, that felt like a baby's slap werecheetah. You can't hurt me anymore." Zelda said and started to cackle.  
  
Britanny stalked forward and snarled at the woman, she stopped when she felt something grab her ankle. She looked down to see the guy she was trying to protect, the was looking up at her, his eyes glazed a little from the blow he had taken. "f-focus all t-those fast punches into one vital spot in the sternum." He gasped out.  
  
"Okay." She said and continued forward. The guys advice had barely been hearable by her werecat hearing, so she knew that Zelda wouldn't hear a thing. It was a good idea too, with her full strength the attack was going to do some damage though, but Zelda deserved it though.  
  
In a burst of speed, Britanny flashed forward in an attack that mirrored the one she had used earlier. Again Zelda started to block them, "Come on werecat, where is all your originality, this is the same pathetic attack you just did."   
  
"Okay." Britanny chirped happily and her fist broke the sound barrier and blasted through Zelda's defenses. It slammed into the bald woman's body, over 300 punches in the blink of an eye with enough force to shatter steel. She was suddenly glad that Lord Talon had enhanced her body, unfortunately it didn't stop the pain as it overwhelmed her. Zelda screamed as she was lifted off the ground and body slammed into unconsciousness.  
  
"Not bad, but that took you longer than I expected Britanny." Julia said as she tossed the unconscious Daishi on top of Zelda.  
  
"She was enhanced again, faster and stronger than the last time I fought her."  
  
"Still, I noticed that Ranma told you how to defeat her." Julia said as she checked out Ranma's injuries.  
  
Britanny blushed. "I would have taken her down anyway."  
  
"I know, I'm just teasing."   
  
"What do we do with these two?"  
  
Julia reached out and tapped several pressure points on both of them to make sure they stayed unconscious. "We'll call the police and let them deal with them."  
  
Britanny shrugged. "Won't do much good, Pee Wee will just get them out or abandon them."  
  
"Well lets deal with them later then."  
  
"Okay."  
  
**********  
  
Watching from the bushes beside the house next door, Erwin Talon, the twelve year old genius curses under his breath as his useless servants are once again taken out. They had lasted a little longer this time, but he was still angry at them. Time after time they failed to do what he wanted, how much would it take for them to win one of these matches? Their bodies could only be altered so much, Zelda was actually beyond the limit that he originally thought she could take. She had lasted against the damned cat girl, but was still no match for her...that blasted werecheetah took the all down to easily.  
  
Erwin growled and leaned back against the house to think, what was he missing, were there flaws in his thinking? Could that be it, was he going about his goals in the wrong manner? He didn't know, but there had to be a reason why they always failed to take down the Digger sisters. Now after seeing their mother he had to consider the whole family was very dangerous it seemed, all of them had above average skills in science, fighting, and magic. The only conclusion he could come up with was to alter his plans or find a way to combat this new set back, to give up his goal was out of the question though.  
  
With a flash of energy, Ionis appeared beside Erwin and bowed. "I managed to trick them Lord Talon."  
  
"Y-you succeeded?" Erwin gasped in surprise.  
  
Ionis held up a disk. "I distracted the security system with a number of illusions and sent the rest of them off in a wild chase. Daishi and Zelda managed to distract the family while I got this."  
  
"Wait, what about the father, the wizard, where is he?" Erwin said, he couldn't remember him participating in the fighting.  
  
"I didn't see him sir." Ionis said.  
  
"That is because I'm right behind you."   
  
Dropping the spell that had made him invisible, Dr. Diggers glared at the two and held out his hand to fire ball them. Ionis had been in this position to many times to talk about and he was as tired of it as Erwin was. He snapped a word in magic that he had cast before this fight started, so him, Erwin, Zelda, and Daishi flared with light and vanished from sight before Dr. Diggers could stop them. He cursed and cancelled his spell and tried to trace them, but could not find a trace of them. He wasn't sure what was on that disk, but he hoped that it wasn't all that important.   
  
He doubted that very much, but there was always the hope that they may have taken the wrong disk by accident.   
  
**********  
  
"Gina, how is Ranma doing?" Julia asked her daughter as they sat down at the kitchen table about four hours later. Britanny and Brianna had taken Genn and Stripe out to a movie when Julia had 'suggested' it earlier. They had been more than happy to go, after sweating a bit and trying to decide if it was a threat or not. Her husband was in his magical study trying to find out how Ionis had gotten past the magical traps he had set up all over the house.  
  
"I've got him down in the lab right now in a healing tank, Daishi managed to shatter his rips and caused him some pretty serious internal damage. He needs to spend about twelve to twenty four hours in there before he will be well enough to move around again, he's currently sedated."  
  
"Healing Tank? Is this another of your newest inventions?"  
  
"Well...I've had it for while now, but until just recently it still had a lot of bugs to work out. Me and a friend have been working on getting those corrected for the last few months now, mostly while you and Brianna were on Jade."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"I did want to ask you some questions about the boy though." Gina started.  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"My scans were pretty thorough and they turned up some things that have me worried, X-rays show that he has had at least a 107 different broken bones with some of them, broken more than once, muscle mass is four times what a normal human would have for his age and places him in the meta-human range, but he shows none of the latent gene characteristics of a meta-human. He is radiating some kind of energy that I don't recognize either, and finally he seems to have a bit of brain damage from some kind of accident the had some years ago. There is a small area on his skull that shows signs of an impact of some kind, there were microscopic bits of bone embedded in his brain tissue."  
  
Julia blinked in shock, she had known that Ranma had survived some kind of major martial arts training and that his father was mostly responsible, but this? "How extensive is the brain damage?"  
  
"Surprisingly enough, it seems to have affected his personality centers in some way and I think it may have damaged his learning abilities as well, but I can't tell that for sure."  
  
"Ranma has been on a Martial Arts training voyage for the last ten years or so and his father hasn't been the best teacher in the world, he expects perfection out of Ranma and more and the boy has survived everything the man could send at him. As I told you earlier I brought him here for two reasons, to cure him of his fear of cats because of his Neko-ken training and to train him. The boy has more potential that anyone that I have ever seen, even when he was barely conscious he told Britanny how to take down that Zelda girl. He just keeps amazing me and that is pretty hard to do."  
  
"Do you have any idea how your going to cure him of this? I don't want him going crazy every time Britanny or Brianna show up in their hybrid forms."  
  
"I'll have to use one of the third level rooms and follow the finally training process in this book." Julia said as she pulled one of Ranma's books from subspace.  
  
"One of the third level rooms, I don't' know, several of those were damaged in Ionis' blast, but even if they weren't don't you think those rooms are a little much? They were designed to take incredibly high amounts of damage and stuff."  
  
"The very nature of the Neko-ken makes it that way I'm afraid, you see as Ranma is right now, the mere sight of a cat can send him into this totally irrational fear of cats. Eventually his mind will retreat until there is only this mindless being that acts like a cat, in that state he can use his Ki to cut through metal, rock, and even flesh and since Ranma isn't in control of his actions he could very well kill everyone around him just by flicking his wrist. That is why I need the room."  
  
"How long with this take?"  
  
"Three weeks to a month I think, maybe a little longer if his fear is too deep to reach."  
  
"Who all is going to help with this? Just you or anybody else?"  
  
"I was going to have Theo work some spells on him to help control the fear if it was needed. Now that I know about the brain damage though..."  
  
"Don't worry about that to much, I've already taken steps to correct it. It was only minor damage anyway, the healing tank will fix pretty much everything that was broken or damaged. By the time he wakes up he should be in better health than he ever was before, the only thing that worries me is that strange energy that I was picking up."  
  
"We can worry about that after he wakes up, for now lets worry about the damage to his body."  
  
"Sure."  
  
"What about those people that attacked us, did you figure out what they took?"  
  
Gina frowned and nodded. "Brianna has been working on cataloging all the magical areas left on the planet, places like 'The Retreat', gate ways to Jade and the Undead Realm, and a whole host of magical hot spots used by people of all races. The disk they took was one with a list of these places that we do NOT want to go to under any circumstances because of evil magic, traps, or dangerous guardians. This includes that site in the arctic where we were nearly killed by the place's guardian and my friend Penny made off with that giant diamond. *  
  
"Oh yeah, didn't she use the money from that to rebuild something that you broke?" Julia asked.  
  
Gina blushed and looked away, it wasn't her fault Penny had left that thing out where anyone could find it. How was she supposed to know that it was so fragile that just touching it would make it disintegrate and ruin nearly six months of work. It wasn't her fault...  
  
"Yeah, yeah...I already apologized for that."  
  
"Good, good, now let's get lunch made up for your sisters. We need to have several tuna fish subs ready for them by the time they return."  
  
"Oh...sure." Gina said. She opened one of the doors in the kitchen and had several very large cans of tuna drop out on her head, picking them up and handing them to her mom, she glared at the cupboard. Her sisters had this thing for fish she just couldn't understand sometimes, the didn't buy the stuff by the crate, they bought it by the pallet and could finish the stuff off in a weeks time.   
  
**********  
  
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT HUNK IS ONLY 16 YEARS OLD?!" Brianna screamed. He dreams and fantasy's crashing down around her as she fell to her knees, her eyes brimming with tears.  
  
"He's only a teenager Bri, what did you think he was?" Gina said.  
  
"He's a hunk, that is what he is!"  
  
"Don't tell me you were making plans to have your way with him were you?" Britanny asked curiously, the boy was cute but nothing like her husband Stripe.   
  
Brianna blushed and nodded.  
  
Gina and Britanny face faulted.  
  
They were all in Gina's lab where Ranma was floating in the healing tank, his wounds being slowly corrected by the fluids he was floating in and computer controlled nano tech that had been injected into his body. Gina was still amazed at the readings she was getting from the boy, they were...fascinating. She dragged herself up and sat down at her terminal and started to tap away while she decided to help Ranma out in a few things as she finished off the reprogramming of the nano tech devices. He would thank her later.  
  
"Gina, it's been about 18 hours since you put him in there, how much longer before he comes out?"  
  
"Not to much longer, I just need to let the nano tech finish off the last of their programming and wash them out of his system. I think he should be ready to come out in about an hour."  
  
"Well you geeks have your fun, I'm going to go and play with my husband." Britanny says and saunters out of the lab, her sisters giving her dirty looks.  
  
"CHEETAH!!"  
  
"Haha...Oh Stripey!" Britanny yells as she leaves the room.  
  
"I can't believe her!" Gina snarls and drops herself down in her chair again.  
  
"I know what you mean." Brianna said with a sigh, she perks up suddenly and smirks at Gina. "Have you seen Genn around, I might have a use for him."  
  
"Don't bother, mom has him running around town gathering up a number of weird supplies for Ranma's training. Cloth, herbs, foods, manuals from storage, and a whole host of other things to inflict on poor Ranma here."  
  
Brianna nodded in sympathy. "Mom tried to teach me some of her fighting techniques once, I had to bow out after several days of agony and pain. Only Cheetah seems to be able to handle her training and even she has problems handling certain portions of it I think, I've seen her walking around limping to many times to wonder."  
  
Gina looked puzzled for a second, then burst out laughing. "I remember that, you walked around for several days looking like you were an old west cowboy that had lost her horse. You were bow legged and limping all the time, all you needed was a cowboy hat and stirrups."  
  
"Humph! I seem to remember the time mom tried to teach you too 'little miss red bottom'."  
  
Gina glared and blushed at the same time. "Don't go there!"   
  
"Hey mom watch as I try to do this triple axle from a standing position!" Brianna mocked in a high pitched voice before she started to giggle.  
  
"BBRRIIAANNNNAA!" Gina growled.  
  
A bell went off and Gina turned to look at her terminal and blinked in surprise, the nano tech was finished and Ranma was ready to come out anytime now. That was a lot quicker than what she had thought, it had only been a few minutes since she added in a few of the little added perks she thought he might need. Gina motioned for Brianna to take a nearby terminal and they both started to go through the data that had been gathered, both of them were thinking that something had gone wrong or screwed up.  
  
Instead they are shown an amazing thing, Ranma has been completely healed, his body is in better shape than it should have been. The brain damage is just gone, no sign of it anywhere on the scans and portions of it are now active. They are not sure what is going on, but it is just pain weird. Keys are tapped and the cylinder that Ranma is floating in begins to empty out while a specialized field is in place to hold his limp body up. When empty the cylinder slowly pulls itself into the floor and Ranma is placed on a bed, his body completely naked.   
  
"Gina, are you sure he is only 16, I've never seen a man that...big, before." Brianna says.  
  
Gina nods, hiding her own blush as her machines go to work doing a post tank scan of his injuries and tallying up the data for both girls to read through. Brianna frowns and points to one line and looks over at Gina. "What is this?"  
  
"That is his body's health level, before he went into the tank he was seriously malnourished and had developed a number of problems because of it. The tank took care of them, but he will be a little weak for the next couple of days, the nano tech did a lot of work on his stomach and intestines."  
  
"Every time I hear about this boy's father I want to hurt him, does he even know what love is, does he even care?"  
  
"HAH!"  
  
Gina and Brianna turned to see Ranma looking at them from the examination table, his eyes were a little unfocused though. "How are you feeling Ranma?" Gina asked.  
  
"I'm a little dizzy actually, what happened and where am I?"  
  
"Your in my lab, Daishi caused you some pretty extensive damage and we had to repair your body. Your dizzy because you've been under sedation for the last 18 hours or so, it will take some time for it to work it's way out of your system."  
  
"Daishi...oh yeah, I lost a fight against that guy. Pops isn't going to like this one bit..." Ranma mumbled.  
  
"No need to worry Ranma, Daishi isn't quite human anymore because of Pee Wee's genetic tinkering of his body. He was enhanced to be stronger, faster, and more deadly than the strongest martial artists and only the most powerful can stand up to him. You managed to do just that, I think that if you had just had a year or two of training you might have beat him. There are few fighters that can stand up to him in a head to head fight like that."  
  
Ranma shrugged. "It's not the first time I've lost, it's just been a long time and I thought I was better than that."  
  
"Well with my mom's training you can correct that problem. Mom took him down after his fight with you with her first blow, you had injured him that much." Brianna said.  
  
"At least I wasn't useless and could help out, why was this Daishi and the bald chick here for anyway?"  
  
"Bald chick?" Brianna asked Gina.  
  
"I think he means Zelda."  
  
"Oh, Pee Wee's first try at DNA splicing and alterations."  
  
"Yeah her, that was the name Daishi called her, she was supposed to go and meet some other guy in the house."  
  
"After you were knocked out Ranma, another guy named Ionis broke into our labs and stole some information out of your computers with Zelda's help. It wasn't all that important to us, but what he took could be very dangerous in the wrong hands."  
  
"Well let me up off this table and we can go kick his ass..." Ranma looked confused all of a sudden. "Hey, why can I understand you now and speak perfect English?"  
  
"While you were in the healing tank I had the computer tap into your subconscious and teach you how. It is a quick way to learn, but the human brain seems to have a limit to what it can take so only a limited amount of information can be placed."  
  
"Um...okay." Ranma still didn't understand, but he understood English now and that was a plus, he didn't care how it had happened.  
  
Gina tapped a few more buttons and the metal clamps holding Ranma down disengage and lift up to set him free. He slowly sat up and rolled off the table and stretched and noticed something, both girls were looking at him hungrily. He looked where they were looking and paled, he was naked, his an manhood was hanging there in full view. "Where are my clothes?" Ranma asked as he nervously scratched the back of his head.  
  
"Gina are you sure he is only 16 years old?" Brianna complained.  
  
"..."  
  
"Yo, my clothes?" Ranma snapped, girls were weird, he would never understand them.  
  
"There a-are some new clothes for you in the locker o-over there Ranma, mom said for you to get used to w-wearing them." Gina said hesitantly, her thoughts echoing her sisters as Ranma walked across the room, naked. Who ever had come up with the term buns of steel had never met Ranma, she could see the muscles moving just under the skin as if he was trying to tempt her. She drooled.  
  
Ranma found the right locker with his name on it, inside he found a set of his regular clothing, red long sleeved silk shirt decorated with attacking dragons, black pants, boxers, and new pair of shoes. To Ranma's surprise, the clothing had to weigh more than he did, they were also designed to take more damage than normal clothing and twice as thick as they should have been. The only difference was that he wasn't wearing his winter clothing anymore. To adjust to the clothing he did a complicated kata to settle the weight and inadvertently put on an almost erotic show for the girls.  
  
"Gina are you sure..."  
  
"YES BRIANNA!" Gina yelled.  
  
Brianna pouted.  
  
**********  
  
* Gold Digger Comic V-1 27-28  
  
End Part 01  
  
  
End Notes - For those who know Gold Digger and it's story, I am having to make certain assumptions on various parts, like Britanny's skills and power. The two ton thing is from a mention in the beta story line and her speed is from the Dragon Orb story where she breaks the speed of sound running for the tower. 


	2. Chapter 02

**********  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 02  
By C. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c) 2002  
**********  
  
Two weeks had passed since Ranma had gotten out of that healing tank and he was beginning to wonder what was going on with this strange family. Gina and Brianna were always around to help him, but the other sister, the one called Britanny, seemed to be avoiding him. She was tall, he knew that, and that there was something different about her, but he had no idea what it was. He just figured she was either busy or didn't want to meet him for some reason, according to her sisters she was married too. It was 6AM in the morning and he was out back going through his daily workout and for once missing his pop, the moron. Master Julia had been pushing him harder than what anything he had ever gone through ever before, even his idiot father would have been proud of her.  
  
Julia had told him to push himself to his limits and beyond while also trying to learn the meditation techniques the books had mentioned. So far things were going pretty good, and she was even getting a room ready for his retraining in the Neko-ken. It had to be set up in such a way that he could not escape form it very easily. Just thinking the name made him shiver in fear, he could still hear the cats as they swarmed over him to get at the food wrapped around his body, clawing his arms as he protected his face and coward in fear, screaming in terror. Julia had told him that he would have to follow the teaching in the book almost letter for letter and that meant that he was going to be exposed to cats again, and again, while forcing himself to mediate in a certain way.  
  
Eventually it would break his fear or leave him in the Neko-ken permanently, a feral insane boy with no mind except that of a cat. He feared that even more than the cats themselves, at least right now he was still sane, but he hoped he was strong enough to pull through this and master the Neko-ken after all these years of fear. Ranma wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was very nervous about what he was going to go through, his father would have called him a coward and for once Ranma was almost willing to agree with him. Only his iron will kept him from running away, as it was, even the meditation exercises were a little weird to understand because they were used to release him from that iron control. There were three in all and they were eroding his control slowly, he sighed, just as they were supposed to do.  
  
He could feel this anger growing inside him as each level of control was reduced, anger at the world for what the was forced to go through, his father for doing it to him, his mother for allowing it to happen and abandoning him, even his few friends in a way for not being strong enough to help him. Not that there was any way a little kid could have helped him, but with the loss of control came a bit of blame that had to be placed. Yesterday he had spent some time talking to Dr. Diggers about what was happening and he had explained that he was actually breaking down the walls he had built up to hold the Neko-ken insanity in place, it was something he had to let loose and consciously control without being a danger to those around him. That was where mastery of the technique came from, that block needed to be removed completely so that he access it without fear. His fear of cats was his greatest weakness, he knew this and would do almost anything to get rid of it and that meant a good deal of training to get him in even better shape according to Master Julia.  
  
Then there was the other thing his new teacher was doing to him currently, she said he possessed tons of chi in his body and that it had been building for years, perhaps even from when he went through the Neko-ken originally. Now he was learning to control that too with the very same meditation techniques he needed to master the Neko-ken, but after only a few days he hadn't made to much progress at it. He could produce an aura now, but it was barely visible to the eye. She also told him that under no circumstances was he to use one of his emotions to access his Ki because it was unhealthy and dangerous to the balance of his soul and body. So he was learning how to draw what he needed from nature itself while tapping the 'true' power in his body. Using his emotions was a bad idea because he would have to focus on one emotion and as it grew in strength and power, his other emotions would grow weak and useless to him.   
  
She hadn't been all that forthcoming with information on how to do that, but Ranma understood enough of what she said so that he could feel the power inside his body and pull tiny amounts out and hold it in his hands, like his aura is was barely visible. He now understood the true meaning of the 'horse stance' that was the first thing taught to all martial arts students of ever school. A perfectly balanced stance that would allow him to touch the live around him and pull tiny amounts of it into his body, pull it into his stomach and using that to flood his system with power. Not that he had been able to do all that much just yet, he had tons of practice ahead of him to master the move with any kind of power. Julia had been amazed when he picked up on it almost right away, but Ranma knew better. His father had been teaching him in a round about way for months now, but he just hadn't know it for what it was. It was just more of the daily practice as far as he had been concerned.  
  
As Ranma worked out he pushed himself to the next level and was soon soaring above the house practicing the midair combat kata he had spent his life learning. Doing thirty to forty foot jumps and hanging in the air for longer than seemed possible. In the house Julia, Brianna, and Gina watched him with keen eyes as they all had an early breakfast, they were once again a little stunned by Ranma's almost natural skill. Julia had also noticed that Ranma picked up and learned new moves like a sponge and she silently wondered if Ranma had the potential to become a weapon master like herself. Long ago she'd had a dream to become a Grand Master of battle in all it's forms, but it was something even she had never quite been able to do, she had grown old far to fast.  
  
Then just recently she had mastered the 'Healing Breath' technique from Master Leep an old lecherous teacher of hers and found out that it had a weird side effect besides healing all wounds. It seems that it healed the effects of aging too and now she had the body of a twenty five year old again, much to her husbands delight. All her wrinkles were gone, all her back aches and tired muscles had vanished seconds after using the technique and given her another chance to achieve her long sought after dream. Training Ranma would be the first step in that, she needed to see if he had what it took to learn her special attacks so that she could pass them on. Things were even looking up as Ranma learned how to consciously use his chi, he had already become very dangerous with his single minded pursuit of the Art and all he needed now was just a little push to go to the next level.   
  
If he managed to get out of the upcoming training with his sanity intact she would know for sure. The True Neko-ken was an incredible technique, she had read through the book Ranma had on it and knew that if he mastered it he would be all but unstoppable. It granted increased power, healing abilities, the ability to form claw like Ki extensions that could cut through metal or be thrown as a distance attack. It's only draw back was that the student would be more prone to cat like behavior, nothing really noticeable unless under a lot of stress or in combat. She hoped Ranma would survive, he had to much potential just waste like that, he was well on his way to becoming on of the best she had ever seen, not that she would tell him of course.   
  
If Ranma failed though, she also knew whom to blame, the boy's father had nearly broken Ranma's mind and body over the years with his insane training ideas. Ranma hadn't noticed, but she and her daughters were slowly taking the time to alter his view of women and it was already having some effect on how he looked at them and the world around him. They were encouraging him in the art and giving him random books to read that showed him that there were things in the world besides martial arts. He devoured them like water, breezing through most books in hours. His photographic memory, recently discovered a little after he got out of Gina's healing tank, allowed him to memorize anything he wanted out of the books. She wasn't sure, but she was beginning to think that Ranma's mind didn't shut down at night while he slept, but spent hours subconsciously assessing the information and added to Ranma's memory verbatim.  
  
This was something that Gina could do, but even she had forgotten some things over time. Ranma could remember everything down to the stains on the page or the faded color of a picture if he wanted to. Gina said this was what the brain damage had been holding off. It seemed that Ranma was an uneducated genius and that his mind had been messed up by his father's training. She was also saying that these were just the beginning of Ranma's changes, he was filling out and growing more muscular as his brain corrected the hormonal balance in his body as well. His time in the tank had allowed her to fix a lot of physical problems, years of malnutrition had really messed his body up.   
  
She was thinking that within a month or two he would experience a growth spurt that would add several inches to his frame as well as making him even more muscular. Julia had seen something like this before, back when she lived on Jade, one of her students had come to her as a barely adequate fighter. Over the three years he had been with her he had grown nearly seven inches and turned into a real man that had women chasing after him from all over the place. She had a feeling that Ranma would do the same, but on an even bigger scale. At only sixteen Ranma had already caught Brianna's eye with his chiseled athletic body. The girl sighed every time she looked at him with a longing that Julia recognized.   
  
Julia looked out the window again and noted that Ranma was now using his Ki to make his punches and kicks faster and more powerful than ever. She could see them cutting through the wind as he moved and jumped around the yard like a grasshopper on steroids. She watched carefully as Ranma rebounded off a tree, to the fence, threw several dozen punches as he flew through the air, and rebounded off the roof of the house to do it all over again with a different kata. Even from here she could feel the aura he was unconsciously putting out as he practiced, there was the other little known secret about chi that she thought she might have to explain to the girls when she had a chance to get them all to sit down together and explain it to them, Ranma was classic case.   
  
He exuded a kind of power that women could pick up on in the most primitive parts of their brains, she had learned of it under her training with Master Leep and his perverted ways of teaching. Some called it a manly presence or a commanding aura of power that could be sensed by those around him. Whatever it was, it was because of Ranma's chi strength and confidence in his abilities as it built up within his body and he unconsciously used it to touch everyone around him. Ranma drew women to him like a moth to light, they could feel his caring soul, his strength and power, and his presence as it made them feel good and safe. Even more amazing was that Ranma didn't know of his power over women and his innocence shone for all to see. The boy could barely lie to anyone, his face gave everything away for all to see.  
  
This was what was affecting Brianna and to a small degree Gina, they were watching Ranma like a couple of cats on the prowl. Ranma would be in trouble if either of them ever decided to take matters into their own hands and pounce on him, luckily Julia thought that Ranma was more than old enough for a quick fling and it would get rid of his innocence when it came to girls. They were all old enough to make their own decisions so she didn't mind in the least what they did with him. It was about time Ranma experienced a little life and her up bringing on Jade had given her a unique point of view.   
  
"That is the most amazing thing I have ever seen." Brianna said as she watched Ranma.  
  
"He does this everyday, even after a long run and spending all day doing all the other forms of training I put him through. It is all he ever does though, I'm beginning to wonder if he even knows how to have fun outside of the Art."  
  
"We did get him to read those books you know." Brianna said.  
  
"So what, he's read three text books from the local library, the ones he got from Kahn, and about a dozen fantasy books. Lots of knowledge there, but where is the useful stuff that tells him how to get a life." Gina snapped.  
  
"Gina, this is all he knows." Julia pointed out. They had discovered quite quickly that Ranma had a genius level IQ, but he was also as stubborn as a mule when it came to altering his ways. "I think with Ranma we need to be very subtle when we introduce him to new ideas like thinking for himself, his father has him reacting on instinct and he tends to want to fight his way though everything instead of thinking his way through."  
  
"He's still cute." Gina muttered.  
  
"I still can't believe that someone that cute is only 16, it's not fair." Brianna whined.  
  
"Get over it already, sis, he's been around for two weeks and all we've found out is that he has a big mouth, is incredibly skilled, and in sorry need of a good beating over someone's knee." It would have been a good idea if Gina wasn't panting and blushing beat red.  
  
"Quite." Julia said.  
  
"Eeeeeeeeee!!" Gina squealed and fell out of her chair, she had completely forgotten that her mother was sitting right next to her while she was ogling a guy. She blushed to her roots and slowly righted herself in embarrassment.  
  
Julia smirked, Ranma's effect on her daughters seemed be quite curious. They were both interested in him, and yet they both kept coming up with excuses to not pursue him because of his age. For the last few days it was always either 'he's too young' or something else, a jerk, had a big mouth and such. She wondered if either of them had considered that Ranma was right on the edge of full manhood in Julia's opinion. Out in the yard Ranma took a small break, he had taken his shirt off and was airing it out a little to dry it. Brianna and Gina were both drooling at the sight of his naked chest, completely forgetting she was there with them again.  
  
**********  
  
The small black helicopter soared over the mountain range, buzzing the trees and scaring the animals as Zelda piloted the thing as close as she could without wrecking it. Beside her in the copilot seat Ionis was keeping an eye on her an occasionally giving her a bit of advice and pointing out mistakes. She had been learning for several months now and Lord Talon and his family was smart enough to build combat helicopters like this that were much easier to fly than a normal one. Not much of course, but enough to let her learn how to fly without simulators and other complex equipment. Lord Talon also wanted all of them to know how to fly in an emergency, he was determined to beat the other explorer teams if it was the last thing he did.  
  
In the back seat compartment Daishi watched out a window as they flew, he was still covered in bandages from the fight he had with the Diggers. He wondered how that young kid had lasted so long in their fight. Daishi, once known as Galford, had spent years training to be one of the best fighters in the world. Going so far as to take on a suicide like quality while training in the most dangerous fighting styles in the world. Lord Talon had helped him by enhancing his speed, strength, and bio energy or Ki control by altering his body through DNA manipulation.  
  
Now Lord Talon, as he wanted to be called, had gotten his hands on something that had him giddy with excitement. That disk they stole had detailed things and places that the young genius couldn't believe. The one he was most interested in was a magical valley that was supposed to be some kind of giant genetic experiment or something. It was called Jusenkyo or the Valley of Cursed Springs in an obscure area of China. The little genius had been babbling about if or days now, the equipment they had brought with them had every one of the adults a little scared, sealed Environmental Suits that could keep everything from air to water from touching their skin.   
  
Daishi leaned to the side as Zelda screamed in pleasure and flew around a small mountain peak with a shriek of the engine. They buzzed a wooden tower set in the woods below them, missing it by about twenty feet or so. He noted that a half naked girl dove off the thing and into the trees, she had a pretty good ass and wild green hair. He silently hoped she was okay, but didn't dwell on it for to long since no one else seemed to have see her, not even Zelda. As for Lord Talon, the kid was strapped into the seat across from him tapping away into a portable computer and going over the information he had gathered on this place, this Jusenkyo.  
  
As registered explorers with The Foundation, they were granted access to the specialized information that very few had access to outside of the group. This Jusenkyo was listed in their archives as a very bad place to go, it was a forbidden location and one of the few places where they were not supposed to ever go due to the danger and political situation in the region. Daishi had seen this on Lord Talon's computer while he was working and wondered why it was being ignored. This was something that worried him, the place was listed as evil and a very, VERY BAD place to go to. There were dozens of warnings and first hand accounts mentioned, Lord Moron had ignored them as the ravings of mad men and continued to giggle to himself a he worked. It was at times like this that Talon hadn't hooked up with the boy genius, but he had given his word and would keep it no matter what.  
  
The helicopter weaved through a small canyon and over a series of forested hills for several minutes before Daishi noted that they were slowing down and going into a slow turn. He looked out again and saw that they were above the springs, the wind from their blades making the pools ripple and wave angrily, even knocked over a couple of the bamboo poles sticking out of the springs. He could feel something in the air as they landed, his senses told him that it would be a good idea to leave this place as soon as possible. He hadn't felt this way in a long time, not since he had first met Lord Talon now that he thought about it. Daishi shrugged silently, it didn't matter all that much, he had given his word to obey for the enhancement that he had been given.  
  
"Are you sure this is a good idea Lord Talon?" Daishi asked.  
  
The kid looked up. "This place is incredible, just by stepping into a pool of water you can change your form completely, it just depends what was last drowned in that pool.. You can become a dog, a bird, or a cat, even change sex or completely alter the way your mind works, all it takes is the correct pool."  
  
"But the possibility of us getting cursed is very high, I would like to avoid that."  
  
"That is what the Environment suits are for, so long as you don't actually fall in one of the springs you will be safe and I plan to visit all the pools while I'm here and collecting samples of them for study. If I can figure out how the curse water works I can make you even more powerful and dangerous to our enemies." Erwin turned and shouted up front. "ZELDA, FIND A SAFE PLACE TO LAND, I WANT TO GET STARTED."  
  
"YES SIR!!" Came back.  
  
The helicopter wheeled around and was soon landing in an open field near the springs, Zelda bounced the helicopter a couple of times, but she managed to set them down without crashing and killing them all so it was a good thing. As soon as they were down and it was obvious that Zelda wasn't going to accidentally take off again, Lord Erwin Talon had the door open and had hopped out to look around the area. Daishi hopped out right behind him and was soon unloading several boxes of equipment and supplies. He noted that a fat Chinese man was meeting with Erwin and they were making some kind of deal. Zelda and Ionis soon came around and started to help him get things unpacked and set up.  
  
"Did Lord Talon say what we were supposed to do here?" Ionis asked, he was looking around nervously, his magicaly attuned sences telling him there was something bad here.  
  
Daishi nodded and pointed at the Enviroment Suits. "When he is ready we will have to get in those to make sure we don't get wet while we collect samples of the water here. A little from each spring."  
  
"This place doesn't look all that dangerous." Zelda said.  
  
Ionis and Daishi looked at her like she was an idiot. "You've got to be kidding, this place is evil, you can feel it in the air."  
  
"I can't believe your afraid of a little water Magic Boy." Zelda snapped back.  
  
Erwin came back and set a large map out on the table and holding it down with some rocks. "Alright, I have permision from the guide to take samples, but we have to be careful of the locals, they are very protective of these springs since they all use them for various reasons. Personally I dont' care, but this place is to dangerous to not take the advice. We have two days to get one liter samples of each spring. There is a sign by each spring that says what it is in Chinese, I will be giving you each a translated map and assigning you each a section to work."  
  
"Sure thing boss." Ionis said.  
  
"As you wish Lord Talon." Daishi said.  
  
"What's up with you guys, this place is like a great vacation spot." Zelda said.  
  
"You strange one...no?" The guide said as he sat on a nearby rock smoking a pipe. He was constantly amazed by the types of people the magic of these springs seemed to attract. Every few months some new and odd customer would show up out of the blue and end up leaving cursed or with strange plans for the water. This kid seemed smart enough, but he had ignored the warnings just like everyone else did. There were springs here that no one in their right minds would ever go near, even the Musk, and yet this kid wanted a 'sample' to take home and play with. He supposed he could have given a firmer warning or out right refused, but where was the fun in that? He wonded what these three would do with the water, the magic of Jusenkyo wouldn't have even allowed them to land if it wasn't something interesting.  
  
Still they seemed to have taken a enough precausions that it was unlikely that they would get cursed, but he had a feeling that one of them would eventually. This place used it's magic to punish those that deserved it and to sometimes help some people fullfil their destiny in one form or another. He blew a smoke ring and hoped the rude bald one would mess up and take a plunge into Spring of Drowned anything, she didn't respect the danger of this place and would soon find out why. The kid with the big mouth seemed to avoid the springs completely, making his slaves (?) do all the work. Most currious.  
  
Within half an hour they had set up a small camp with three tents, a large table, several generators and some computers. Daishi, Zelda, and Ionis were suited up and ready to go and get the samples, each of them carrying a pack full of plastic jars to take samples. Erwin took a few minutes to stress the importance of not touching the water and to lable each of the samples carefully. If there was one thing he didn't want to deal with was a mistake with what kind of water they were using.  
  
"Excuse me, do you know how I can get to Furinkan High school?"  
  
Erwin gasped and spun around to see a guy in green and yellow clothing that had seen better days. He was holding a very large back pack and looked a little confused. "W-what the hell are you talking about?!"  
  
"I'm just trying to find my way there, no reason to get mad." He said.  
  
"I don't care about some stupid high school, I'm here on a scientific expedition and it is dangerous here, go away!"  
  
"Alright, sheesh, I just wanted directions." He said and started to wander off.  
  
Erwin, still angry for being inturpted reached across the table and grabbed random bottle and quickly loaded some into a home made super soaker. He was glad he had thought this out in advance or he would not have come across such a good guinee pig. Raising the water gun he aimed and fired. The small sample of water shot out and hit Ryoga right in the back and across his legs. The shock of cold water made him gasp and spin around, but not before the world seemed to suddenly shift and grow before his eyes. Erwin smirked at the pile of loose clothing that had once been a minor irratant. He noted in his journal that his water guns were working perfectly and that he would not have to use Zelda as a test subject.  
  
**********  
  
Ranma stood behind Brianna as she drew her weapon, pointed it at the target on the far wall and pulled the trigger. He was surprised when there was not the loud bang he had been expecting, but a kind of whooshing sound and a distortion of air in front of the weapon as it fired. The target was about fifty yards away and Ranma watched as it exploded into a kind of cloudy haze. Brianna smirked as she turned to look at Ranma, she loved to demonstrate her weapons. Of all her sisters, she was the one that designed all their combat gear, the heavy weapons, powered suits, and other fun to blow up things.  
  
"That was pretty neat, but a little over done don't ya think?" Ranma said.  
  
Brianna's world shattered. "Huh?" She squeaked.  
  
"Well weapons are a crutch, what happens when you lose it, are you able to still defend yourself? Or are you at your opponents mercy? I will admit that guns and weapons are pretty usefull, but my training has allowed my to be able to fight against weapon users and take them down with my bare hands and feet. I have only met four people in my life who I could not disarm and I still beat them in the end."  
  
Ranma held up his hand and consentrated, after several seconds a small white ball of chi formed in the palm of his hand. "This is the perfect weapon Brianna, it can not be taken from me, and it can be formed into a blast of energy or a semi solid weapon of some kind if I need it. All it requires is my mind and body to use and will be even stronger than your guns."  
  
"Guns are not useless." Brianna glowered. "I have guns that make this one look like a simple fire cracker."  
  
"I never said that, I said that you are almost useless when you lose your weapon. No matter what type you are using, all that is needed is to disable it or knock it out of your hands. My body is my weapon and the only way to lose it is for me to die."  
  
"With normal weapons maybe, but not mine."  
  
"Why do you say that?" Brianna asked, her temper beginning to flare.  
  
"Modern weapons have only advanced so much in the last 100 years and I had to take things a little further to create what I use. All of my weapons are computer controled in some way and ten times more useful. I have these for example." Brianna growls and holds up a palm sized yellow thing with ears and a tail.  
  
"What in the world is thing?" Ranma asked, it looked like little yellow toy animal with big eyes. It blinked at him and smirked.   
  
"Peebo!!"  
  
Ranma hopped back in shock.  
  
Brianna cackled. "This is Peebo, my ultimate creation! Bwhahahahaha! Peebo, non-leathal attack, sic'em!" Brianna said and tossed the thing at Ranma who grabbed it out of the air and took a close look at the thing.  
  
"How is this thing supposed to be dangerous?"  
  
"They are my greatest creation..." Brianna grinned and pointed to the ceiling.  
  
"Brianna..."  
  
"Yes Ra-n-ma?" She breathed, suddenly feeling playful.  
  
"Um...I'm not sure...how..." Ranma said nervously and edged away from her.  
  
"Times up!" Said the Peebo in Ranma's hand.  
  
PPPHHHUUUUMMMPPPHHH!!  
  
Ranma and Brianna stood there, covered in black dust and smoke wafting off their hair. Brianna had this exstatic look on her face, full of pride and love. She was such a genius! Ranma groaned and fell over with a thump, not used to being at the center of a rather large concuscion attack explosion. The door to the firing range suddenly opened up and Gina came rushing in to see Brianna standing over the smoking form of Ranma.   
  
"What the hell was that!"  
  
"Um...nothing?"  
  
"Brianna what have I told you about using those Peebo's in the house?"  
  
Brianna sweat dropped and giggled nervously. "Not to ever use them unless it is an emergency...but Gina, I improved them!"  
  
"Your always improving them, making them smarter or more dangerous. They have destroyed two labs and even my room!"  
  
"Ah come on, there are just a few more bugs to work out."  
  
"Brianna!"  
  
"Humph!" Brianna said and crossed her arms.  
  
At her feet Ranma opened his eyes and rolled to his feet and noticed that his clothing was burnt and chared. He dusted off a bit of the damage, his clothing seemed to have been completely ruined. "I'm fine, I'll see you girl's later." He says and walks out of the room before they can say anything.   
  
Gina turns to Brianna.  
  
Brianna turns to Gina.  
  
"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" They scream at each other.  
  
'This place is weird' Ranma thinks as he walks the halls of Gina's underground lab, there are a number of emotions causing him to feel weird and he could not recongnize half of them. One of the few that he does is a dangerous one, doubt, he rarely ever felt it because it could bring about his death if he wasn't 100% confident of his abilities. Yet these girls were impossible to understand, they all seemed to have talents and skills that were just plain weird to him. Brianna could be warm and friendly without even trying, and yet she become really dangerous if he says something she doesn't like. He had never had to worry about what he said to others before, his pop never complained about anything he said before, why should anyone else care?   
  
Then there was Gina, she was an odd one, he could not understand what motavated her in the least. One minute they could be talking and she would be as friendly as could be, the next she was mad enough to send one of her robots after him. He had been wandering around the third level the day before when he stepped into some room by accident, completely missing the warning on the door that said it was off limits. Gina had sent what she called a 'Hurt Bot' after him, the thing had been the best opponent he had faced in a long time, it could stand up to his attacks without taking damage and give as good as it got. In the end he had taken it down, but not before being beaten black and blue over most of his body.   
  
Gina had robots that could do anything a human could, she could build almost anything from scratch, her hurt bots were a good example of this. He had just been lucky the one she sent at him was not trying to kill him, but subdue him. She carried a number of gadgets around with her that confused him a little. They were kept in her belt pack when she was working, there were tools and such, but the gun was a surprise, as was the force field generator she used as a first line of defence. She was the tinkerer and the one that built all the machines that the family used for things. Brianna built all the weapons and seemed to have a love for explosives, Ranma had even heard that she liked to 'improve' on Gina's designs of things. This always got her in trouble in one way or another. The other sister though, he was still confused about her and wasn't sure how to deal with her.  
  
He had only met her a couple times and she seemed like nice enough girl, a little on the weak side conpared to Gina and Brianna, but nothing all that bad. (Ranma has yet to meet her in hybred form yet, just as a human.) She was married, but her husband didn't seem to be around either. The other house guest avoided him to one degree or another, Genn, that was his her name. That kid was just plain weird, on one hand she was smart, on the other she looked like boy half the time. (Ranma doesn't know just what a Rakasha is and Genn tries to stay in his neutral form most of the time.)  
  
He finally made it to his room, they had given him one of his own, and stripped off his charred clothing. Wrapping a towel around his waist he stepped into the bathroom and took a long hot shower. He had noticed that over the last few weeks his body had changed a little, he was a little bulkier and taller. Scars that he had had for years seemed to be slowly vanishing for some reason, he had no idea why that would start now. As he finished up, he turned everything off and stepped out, dried off, and walked into his room. Master Julia had given him several sets of the heavy clothing and told him to get used to them since he would be wearing something like it for his entire stay. He didn't mind all that much, it was better than lugging that damned backpack around like he used to do and seemed to work even better.  
  
Now that he was feeling a lot better he sought out his teacher and eventually found her in her gym, he had never seen an underground gym before, going through a workout with a sword. Though he didn't like weapons, he had to admit that she was one of the best he had ever seen. She flowed through kata after kata with a grace and power that even his old man counldn't match. He wondered how she had gotten so good at so young an age, but decided that it was possible since he was younger than she was and as good as he was.  
  
"Hello Ranma."  
  
"Master Julia."  
  
"Are you here for another workout?" She asked in surprise, the boy just didn't know when to quit.  
  
"Can I ask you a question instead, I'm a little confused about something."  
  
This was new, she thought to herself. "Sure, go ahead."  
  
"Why do your daughters get so mad at me when I tell them something."  
  
Julia nearly face faulted, but kept her balance through a supream effort as she shook her head. "That is a little diffacult to explain Ranma, you see your making them mad because your telling them things they don't want to hear."  
  
"I don't understand, I've never had a problem like this before."  
  
"I've dealt with a few others like you Ranma, you grew up on the road with only your father as a role model and that has hurt you in a number of ways."  
  
"Hurt me? Um...but I feel fine." Ranma said, looking his body over and patting it here and there.  
  
"Not physicly, emotionally."  
  
"Emotionally? I don't understand, emotions are for the weak." Ranma said in confusion.  
  
Julia swatted him over the head. "Don't be an idiot Ranma, you just did what I was talking about, emotions are not weak, they can be more powerful than anything you have ever encountered."  
  
"But pop says..."  
  
"Ranma, your father is an excelent teacher for your body, you are quite possiblly one of the best fighters of your generation right now, unfortunatly he has neglected to teach you how to use your mind properly and that is your greatest weakness. You can not think in the way you need to and that is something that can be exploited against you."  
  
"I have no weaknesses!" Ranma growled.  
  
"Your wrong Ranma"  
  
"How!?"  
  
Julia ignored him and tried a different tactic to try and get her point across. "Ranma how do you expect my daughters to forgive you when you insult them all the time?"  
  
"Forgive me? For what?" Ranma snapped, he was getting confused.  
  
"I've heard you call them names and other mean things over the last few weeks, why would you do that. Do you not like them?"  
  
"...but that is when I am trying to win or distract them."  
  
"That is no excuse to be mean Ranma." Julia said and narrowed her eyes. "Don't you like girls?"  
  
"Of course I do!" Ranma nearly screamed, his aura flaring around him as he got a dangerous glint in his eye.  
  
'Don't make fun of the boy's manhood' Julia noted calmly, unless she wanted to prove a point of course. It was another thing about the boy that she could blame on his father, his low self esteme and insucurities. "Ranma you don't insult someone unless you mean it, if you don't appologise to them they well think you were serious and hold it against you."  
  
"That's stupid!"  
  
"Why is that Ranma?"   
  
"Why would they take it so seriously? Calling people names can't hurt you, it is just sound and there is no damage involved."  
  
"But there is damage Ranma, emotional damage that is harder to fix than physical damage."  
  
"That's impossible!"  
  
"You want me to prove it to Ranma? You have already given me what I need to prove it to you."  
  
"No I haven't." He growled.  
  
"Look at how you reacted a few minutes ago Ranma when I accused you of not liking girls. How did you react, how did you feel?"  
  
"But...but..." Ranma stuttered.  
  
"Why did you get mad, aren't you secure in your manhood? If you were you would not have gotten angry because what I said to you would not have mattered."  
  
Ranma had been thinking in a certain way for so long that he would always look at the world from a point of view that he had used all his life. Lately he had been finding it harder and harder to look at things like he used to, it seemed so pointless and useless to him now. Master Julia had just thrown him for a loop, again, and he didn't understand why. Everyone of these girls was doing this to him too, how? He had never doubted himself before, it was new experiance to him. They had explained to him about the brain damage and that there were parts of his brain being used now that hadn't been years and he found himself acting differently than he was used to. Odd thoughts kept popping up in his brain, things like girls are cute, how cool light looked as it reflected off something, things that were alien to him. They were even worse when he was meditating on the Neko-ken techniques.  
  
He had always been proud of his manhood, his strength and power, the way his body could do things that few others could. Pop's had always told him to never hold back and to prove himself in everyway, to treat girls with respect and protect them with his life if need be. On the other hand, Ranma realized that he had seen his father do the exact opposite of that on hundres of occations when they were looking for food. Stealing from the tables around him when they were in a resteruant or some other kind of place. Ranma realized that he had been trying to be the exact opposite of his old man for years now, he held honor before all else and would gladly die for it. He had taken to heart everything his father said and tried to be the perfect person while his old man could care less so long as he got away.   
  
His father had taught him to use words to make his opponents angry and make mistkes. He's been doing it for years he realized, ever since he could remember, but he realized now that he did it even when he didn't need to. When had he started to do that? There were no one point in his memory that he could remember starting to insult people, he had always done it. Even when he was a little kid and playing with his friend Ukyo...  
  
"I was taught to look at everything as a battle, something to win and conquer in everything I do. Pop's and me have done it for as long as I can remember, if I ever messed up or wasn't good enough, he would call me a weak girl and slam me down as if I was nothing. It's his favorite insult and I always fall for it, I can't be weak or I will be a failure and a girl is supposed to be weak."  
  
Julia narrowed her eyes and scowled. "Am I weak Ranma?"  
  
"No, you could kick the old man's ass in seconds. I don't understand how this can be, I have always been told girls are weak and need to be protected. You and your daughters can do things on your own with no help from anyone, you protect yourselves better than I ever could. Two weeks ago I would never have admitted that, but today I see things a little differently."  
  
"Ranma, there are only cosmetic differences between men and women, you have greater strength, I counter that with speed. The list can go on and on, it is why men and women pair up, to make a better team. Your weaknesses are complemented and lessoned by haveing a female counter part, there are several martial arts styles that focus on teaching a couple to fight as a single being."  
  
"Maybe, but this is to much to think on right now. I'm just getting confused, I'm not used to thinking through things, just reacting instinctivly and decisevly."  
  
"That seems to be the core of your fighting style and it makes you very hard to defend against, but it is also a weakness. A weakness that is offset by your style's free form moves and attacks, intermixing the best off all styles into your own unique version. This in turn creates more weaknesses that you have to fix, altering your style even more. It is a visious circle, but one that you have survived."  
  
"I know all this, it's why my school is so flexible and deadly. The impossible becomes possible with a Master of Anything goes."  
  
"True, but you still don't think things through do you?"  
  
"I think."  
  
"Only in battle, the only area your father has ever allowed you to think for yourself." Everything else has been supressed.  
  
Ranma sighed, he wasn't sure, but he had a hunch he had just lost the verbal sparing they were doing. He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, ever since he came here he had been learning that his father had been to be something that he didn't want to be. He didn't mind fighting, it was a lot of fun, instead he seemed to a jerk. Most people insulted him and got angry with him when they called him names, these women took it one step further, they explained why they were mad at him. No one had ever done that before.  
  
"Ranma, I want you to take up a hobby. Something other than martial arts." Julia decided.  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"You have been reading a good number of books lately, I want you to continue to do so. Take an hour or two every day and read, find some of the knowledge out there that can help you the most, about the mind, nature, science, magic, fantasy. Anything that would help you to be a better person, you need to expand your horizons a little, develop an imagination."  
  
"But that's so boring!" Ranma whinned. "I barely got throught those other books!" Ranma knew deep down that this wasn't quite true, but didnt' want to admit to liking something other than martial arts.  
  
"Look how much you learned from them Ranma, can you honostly say that you haven't intergrated some of the things you learned from those books?"  
  
"Um...No." He mumbled and looked away. There had been things in those books that amazed him, things that he thought impossible. He remembered a few years ago when he had been going to middle school and had access to books and stuff, he had used the time to once again fool his father by learning. He hadn't thought about it, but this would be the perfect opprotunity to expand himself, something he had always had to do very carefully.   
  
"Gina has an extensive library here in the house, I want you to look into the phycollogy section and read through them. You might be surprised what you find, they well also help you out with your Neko-ken."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Read them and you will understand."  
  
**********  
  
A few days later Ranma was flipping through the air and dodging as Master Julia's blade spun around her in wirlwind of speed that Ranma couldn't defend against. He had taken on tons of fighers that used weapons, even very fast ones, but this was different. Julia lived up to his deffintion of an 'Arms Master', she could do things with the blade that he had thought impossible. Every time the they trained in the morning she would pull something out of her bag of tricks that made him look like an amature. It was a humbling experiance for him, one he did not like very much.   
  
He complained of course and insulted her as he would anyone, but she didn't react like she should have. He was trying to keep the insulting to a minimum outside of training, but he he still did it while fighting. Instead of anger, she retaliated by making his training, already very hard, even worse. His ten mile jog in the morning had turned into a forty mile run that had a time limit, if he failed to finish on time by even a second she made him pay in pain. Even his father hadn't ever pushed him so hard in his life. Over the last week he trained until he dropped, then Julia would kick him and make him continue for a few more hours.  
  
Even his Ki control was increasing, wounds taken in the morning would be gone by that afternoon. Dr. Diggers had explained to him the basics of how to use his aura and taught him some meditations to work on it and increase his control. This was the second day of his Ki practice and Julia was pushing him beyond limits, even with all his training increasing his endurance she was still pushing him. Her blade slashed out in a weird pattern that he dodged and weaved, completely unable to find a way to slow her down or take the blade away. He cursed and focused even more, but he was forced to block a kick suddenly and her free hand backhanded him off his feet. Rolling in mid air he landed just in time to find himself in the middle of her continued attack, catching him at the worst possible moment. He growled in frustration and took another kick to the head for his trouble and a slap across his ass with her sword just to add insult to injury. He ended up in a heap on the ground gasping for air, god he hated to be beaten like this, it was so embarassing.  
  
"Focus Ranma! You wanted to know the right way to do this, so FOCUS!! You've already learned how to do this in meditation, now do it in combat! Grab onto all of your being, your soul, your emotions and find your ture power!" Julia screamed.  
  
He snarled and rolled to his feet, sweat dripping off him with every movement. Julia was a bit amazed that the boy could even be conscious, let alone standing like he was. Ranma had the most amazing instincts for fighting, anything short of an actual death blow could be used in training and Ranma seemed to always find a way to counter her attacks eventually. Still, she had learned his limits over the last few days and he was sitting on the edge, time for the final lesson for a few hours.  
  
"I will beat you...yet!" Ranma growled, weaving back and forth on his feet. In his mind he repeated again and again, I will not go down, I will not go down!  
  
Julia swept her sword around and took up a basic guard position. "Then stop playing around and do what I showed you Ranma."  
  
Unknown to Ranma a pale white light formed around him as he prepared to attack, he had to put his all into this if he was to win. With every last bit of strength he screamed, his aura flared up and for brief moment turned gold at the edges. Then he flashed forward and threw a punch, and another, and another...Julia gasped and hopped back in surprise as the boy pulled off something he hadn't been trained for. A sonic boom rolled over the house and startled the neighbors. The blow came out of nowhere and sent Julia flying back, but not before she kicked him in the stomach. She landed in a roll and came to her feet quickly, instantly at the ready for Ranma's attack, then blinked in surprse.  
  
The boy was just standing here, a surprised look on his face, she also noted that his aura was gone as well. "Ranma?"  
  
"..." Ranma opened his mouth to say something, but collapsed into a heap at her feet.  
  
Julia sighed and shrugged, her senses were telling her that Ranma was out cold and totally drained of energy. He had finally used the full power of his Ki to throw those punches, to bad he had to have the ability pounded into him to even get him to learn it, a legacy of his father's training as well. She didn't mind all that much though, she had trained several students and all of them were unique in one way or another. If she had to pound ever technique into him, so be it, it was good training for her too. She stalked over and kicked him a few times and Ranma groaned.  
  
"Get up Ranma, it's not time to quite just yet."  
  
"Unngh..." Ranma mumbled and tried to sit up, but his body wouldn't respond to his urgings, he was just to tired.   
  
**********  
  
Down in her lab Gina was going over her readings on Ranma once again, that sonic boom had been amazing. The only person she knew that could do that without magic was her sister Britanny or Cheetah as she liked to be called at times. At her mom's request she had spent the last few weeks with her husband Stripe to keep from scaring Ranma with her cat like features. According to her computer Ranma had thrown almost 175 punches in a split second when his aura flared up and using almost every bit of energy in his body. Her calculations said it would take him about fours hours to recover from the drain and another two days before he was back to normal.  
  
She had watched her mom train Cheetah on a number of occasions and knew that Ranma would be back at it by the time supper rolled around today, her mom could be a slave driver at times. She would not wait for him to get enough rest to be in top form just yet, it wasn't how she worked. Especially when it came to training a new student, if they could survive her worst she would turn them into powerful martial artists. Gina shivered as she recalled what Ranma had gone through lately, the running, the beatings, everything she tried to avoid if at all possible. She let her technology take care of her since it was her specialty, Ranma was only her hobby, he reminded he of Séance in a way. To innocent and shy for his own good, but at least he couldn't 'see' what her day dreams were like, poor Séance had nearly fainted when he saw just how dirty her mind was. She smirked, he was so cute when he blushed and fainted like that...   
  
She shook herself out of her fantasy and noticed a light blinking on one of her monitoring devices. Reaching over she flipped a switch and let it run, a few seconds later a large holographic image filled the area in front of her. It was a satellite image of some area in China, Pee Wee and his goons were wearing environment suits and...stealing water from springs? She focused the device a little more on Zelda and watched as she very carefully treated the stuff like it was the most dangerous stuff in the universe.   
  
Tapping another button she used the image to find any information on the location while wondering what the little idiot was up to. Soon information started scrolling down the front of her screen and she gaped at what came up. It was one of the forbidden locations, those areas that every intelligent explorer like her and Penny avoided if at all possible. No amount of money was worth going to that place, it was just to dangerous to think about. This was bad, even The Foundation knew better than to go into that area, it was one of the most dangerous and hostile of all China. There were three different kingdoms in that mountain range and all of them were at war with each other.   
  
There were the Amazons who held the most land in the area and were still living the same way they had been for the last few thousand years. They were very dangerous and lived by some of the oddest rules just for the sake of survival. As Amazons the women ruled and controlled while they treated men with barely concealed contempt and emasculated them as much as possible. The Musk, another of the kingdoms had once been a tribe of men who lived with the Amazons, but rebelled or something to form their own nation, the exact opposite of the Amazons. As fighters they were both deadly and powerful, they were rumored to have access to old time magical items and knowledge from long ago. Because of the dangerous and unpredictable ways of the people though this was nearly impossible to determine. The third kingdom was that of the Phoenix Mountain, a rare surviving sub species of bird people that ruled the skies in the area. There was supposed to be an actual immortal phoenix that lived in their mountain, but that was impossible to prove as well.  
  
To go into that part of the world was to step back into time more than 2000 years, it was just to dangerous to enter as it was. More than one explorer had entered that area and either died, disappeared, or been forcibly absorbed into the culture against their will. According to her records no one had entered that area in more than fifty years, he had vanished into thin air after only a few weeks. Those springs Zelda was being so careful of were full of chaos magic according to her father, he had been there at one time when on a study mission for the Society earlier in his life while he was an explorer himself. One of the few to ever return and that had been a very long time ago.  
  
Gina considered going to talk to her daddy, but ruled it out when she remembered that he didn't like to talk about those years of his life when he used his magic to wander the world. He blamed himself for a number of mistakes that cost some people their lives. Gina didn't agree with him in the least, but he was stubborn and prideful and wouldn't listen to anyone but himself at times. He wouldn't even let himself be forgiven for failing to prevent the deaths of Britanny's were-cheetah clan, the last of them on the planet. Britanny was the last surviving member of the clan now, adopted into their family to atone for daddy's mistake.   
  
That failure had forced him to spend countless hours learning to become one of the most powerful mages in generations. Gina also realized now why he had spent so much time with his daughters, natural and adopted, he did not want to abandon or fail anyone again. Over the years he had tried to even teach her magic, but she failed completely and given her a science book instead. Boy had that opened up her mind to certain things, she doubted that even her father knew what he did that day. He had no grasp of science, just the basics and with his power he could bend certain 'rules' anyway.  
  
Getting information out of him, if he didn't want to give it, was like pulling teeth with a small wire. Hard and painful. Gina leaned back in her chair and wondered if she could talk to her mom about this. She had spent a number of years traveling back and forth from this world to the world of Jade where she grew up and earned her Arms Master of Jade title. Unfortunately she didn't talk about her past all that much either and was even more closed mouth than her dad was.  
  
Gina reached out and tapped a button near her phone and activated a speed dialer for her video phone. A few seconds a pretty back girl appeared on one of her screens and smiled at Gina. "Hi Gina, what's up?"  
  
"We might have a problem with Pee Wee, Penny."  
  
"This is about that disk he stole?"  
  
"Yeah, he went to Jusenkyo, China."  
  
Penny gasped. "T-that's insane, he knows how dangerous that place can be..."  
  
"I don't think he cares, he, Daishi, Zelda, and Ionis are there right now in Environment Suits filling up bottles of water."  
  
"That place is far to dangerous for anyone to ever visit, even that won't work Gina, he is as good as dead."  
  
"I don't think so."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"The magic of Jusenkyo is very chaotic and so old that it may have developed an intelligence of some kind according to the research that has been done on the place. What better way to achieve chaos than to allow 'samples' to be taken and eventually affect hundreds of people? Pee Wee might even be working right into it's hands with whatever his little project is, you know how he is with genetic research, he's obsessed with it."  
  
"Do you have any idea why any of the three kingdoms haven't stopped him from doing what he wants?"  
  
"No, they are usually pretty hostile to outsiders that enter the area. I do know that he used one of his helicopters to get there, it showed up on the satellite image."  
  
Penny blinked, even with all her money she hadn't been able to put a satellite in orbit. "Girl, how in the world did you get a satellite?"  
  
Gina SMIRKED at Penny. "I built it myself and got permission to put one where I wanted, paid some favors to take care of the paper work, and had dad teleport it up there. Didn't have to use one rocket or anything."   
  
Penny glowered in jealousy. "You...you..."  
  
"Heh, anyway, do you have any idea what we should do about Pee Wee and his goons?"  
  
Penny gave her a look that said she wasn't going to forget this satellite business, and then moved on with business. "Yeah, we need to get permission to go and stop him, Jusenkyo is one of the few forbidden places on Earth that we can't study. It's off limits to everyone, no matter what is happening."  
  
"I know." Gina sighed.  
  
"Send an e-mail to The Foundation, they need to hear about this."  
  
"That was my thought as well, I just wanted it seconded in case I was making a mistake." Gina tapped up a quick message and uploaded a picture of Pee Wee and his goons. The Foundation would have the backing to get the Chinese government to do something about this if need be.   
  
"Well?" Penny said.  
  
"I just sent it."  
  
"Excellent, I'm going to have Charlotte start getting supplies together for a trip in case they let us go and stop him. It's best to be prepared."  
  
"I'll do the same." Gina said and cut the call and stared at the blank screen for a few seconds. She tapped another button. "Cheetah?"  
  
"What's up sis?"  
  
"Can you get everything set up for an expedition, we are going to have to go and stop Pee Wee before he does something stupid."  
  
"Do we have to, he is nothing but a trouble maker."  
  
"Yes Cheetah we do, I don't care about him, but what he's doing could destroy far to many people."  
  
"Yeah I understand, what do I do about the new kid up stairs?"  
  
"Just stay in your human form unless you're in the loading bay where you'll need your extra strength."  
  
"Okay, I'll get Brianna to help me."  
  
"That's fine, get it all done as soon as you can. The Foundation could be calling us within the hour."  
  
"Right." Cheetah said and cut the link.  
  
**********  
  
Ranma came to with a start and instantly wondered why his whole body was in pain, then remembered his fight with Master Julia and groaned. He had been defeated again, this was becoming a habit with him. He was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to get these techniques down, because normally he could get even the hardest technique in a matter of days. He had been training for over two weeks now and he had barely made any progress, it didn't help that he was being exposed to things he had never seen before. He sighed and sat up, finding himself on his bed. Someone had cleaned and bound the wounds he had taken during his sparring match, he double checked the bandages around his arms and chest. There wasn't any blood on them so he knew he hadn't taken any kind of major damage.  
  
Glancing at a nearby clock he saw that it was almost noon, he had been out for about half a day. It had been awhile since he took this kind of abuse in training, he had thought he was finally beginning to get in good enough shape to handle whatever was sent at him. He had once been forced to run for over twenty four hours at full speed to build his endurance, Julia was pushing him to the limit of his endurance. He groaned in pain as he swung his legs out of bed and stood up, there were bandages on his legs as well. It seems that Julia had done quite a number on him during their battle.  
  
His muscles protested as he got dressed and did some stretches to loosen his body up a little, but he had been in this position before so didn't think much of it. After about five minutes he was feeling almost normal again and grinned as his stomach growled loudly. He hit the kitchen and made up a couple of sandwiches, they vanished almost before he sat down, but the infamous Saotome stomach was appeased for the moment. He finished up by downing a sport drink and headed into the back yard, this wasn't a vacation, it was a training trip.  
  
"Afternoon Ranma."  
  
He spotted Gina and Brianna loading up one of her cars and walked over to see what they were doing. "What's up?"  
  
"Remember those guys that attacked us a couple weeks ago?" Gina said.  
  
"The ninja and bald chick?"  
  
"Right, Daishi and Zelda. They are over in China doing something really bad and we have to go and stop them before something happens."   
  
"Where in China?"  
  
"A little explored mountain range deep in the most dangerous areas of the country. The area is nearly impossible to reach without permission of the locals, were not quite sure how Pee Wee and his gang were allowed to go there and live."  
  
"...and live?"  
  
"Yeah, the locals hate to be disturbed and tend to kill or enslave any outsiders that wander into the area. It had been on the off limits list to explorers for years, nearly everyone that had been there has disappeared, died, or been cursed."  
  
"Cursed? Like with magic and such?" Ranma recalled, much to his surprise, when Dr. Diggers had used his magic to teleport them from the mountains to here in the United States. He would have shrugged it off, but still hadn't quite figured out how he learned English so well. Gina's explanation hadn't made much sense to him at the time, so he figured that Dr. Diggers had done something.  
  
"Exactly! Pee Wee is messing with things he shouldn't and could place everyone he comes in contact with in danger."  
  
"Who is Pee Wee?"  
  
"Hmmm? Oh, Pee Wee is the nickname of Erwin Talon, a twelve year old super genius in genetics and DNA research. He and his family are pretty had to track, we know next to nothing about his parents, he has been around for some time now with his bodyguards Daishi, Zelda, and Ionis. Daishi is the ninja you took on, Zelda is the girl, and Ionis is his magic user. Ionis tends to cause the most trouble because of his magic, but once one gets beyond that he is pretty easy to take down." Gina said.  
  
"Well if they are causing problems, take me with you, I owe that ninja guy a rematch for what he did to me the other day."  
  
"Ranma it could be dangerous and you have never done anything like this before, we could be walking into a trap for all we know. Locating him was a little to easy."  
  
"I don't care about the danger."  
  
"You just want to fight that guy again don't you?" Brianna asked as she stepped around them and tossed some packages in the back seat of the car."  
  
Ranma nodded. "Well yeah, I don't run into many fighters that can beat me anymore so I have to test my skills against them."  
  
"This isn't a game Ranma!" Gina yelled and bopped him over the head.  
  
"I know that, but..."  
  
"No, I will not take you. Anywhere else and I would have no problem with it, but this place is just to dangerous for someone that had no experience with these kinds of situations."  
  
"Hey, I can take care of my self!"   
  
"I know you can Ranma, but this is just to dangerous."  
  
Ranma was about to argue a little more when Master Julia stepped out of the house and waved at them. "Gina take him with you, just make sure he knows the danger he's placing himself in."  
  
"But mom, we're going to Jusenkyo, China, home of a trio of kingdoms that even China's new government is afraid to mess with. Were going to the Cursed Springs themselves, Pee Wee is stealing the water from the springs even as we speak. We don't have time to get Ranma ready for this mission."  
  
"Then the more people you have the better chance you will have to defeat him."  
  
Gina cringed and looked at Brianna before turning back. "What about Cheetah?"  
  
"Cheetah? A c-cat?" Ranma said fearfully and looked around.  
  
"No Ranma, she means Britanny, Cheetah is her nickname." Julia said. She shrugged mentally, it was about time he knew anyway. Cheetah was beginning to complain about keeping a low profile around him and there was only so much they could do to keep her away from Ranma. She was hoping to get Ranma over his fear of cats, at least when it came to her daughter Britanny.  
  
"Your sister?" Ranma said to Gina.  
  
"Um...yes."  
  
"Is she going with you too?"  
  
"Yes, she is my protection against Pee Wee and the others that may show up."  
  
"What? How can that girl protect you? She isn't even a trained fighter like I am and she is going with you."  
  
"Actually Ranma, she is quite good at it, between her and Gina's technology they are able to protect themselves better than most. Brittany has a number of special skills that allow her to be Gina's protector."  
  
"Special skills? Like what?"  
  
"Um..." Gina said nervously.  
  
"What is it?" Ranma asked again.  
  
"Britanny is special Ranma, she's a werecheetah." Julia said.  
  
"A werecheetah?"   
  
"She is the last of her kind Ranma and she has been a member of my family since she was a baby."  
  
"But..."  
  
"She's just exotic Ranma, don't hold her race against her." Brianna said. "Me and her have a lot in common."  
  
"Your a were creature too?" Ranma said and eyed her nervously.  
  
"No, but I do have a bit of werecheetah in me, I have more strength, can run a incredible speeds and practice in their use once or twice a week."  
  
"Can I ask one more question?"  
  
"Go ahead."  
  
"What is a werecheetah?"  
  
"HUH?!" Gina and Brianna gasped out in shock.  
  
Julia just blinked and started to laugh. "You don't have a clue do you Ranma?"  
  
"Hey, I know what a were...um...thing is, I don't have to tell you." Ranma said in grump.  
  
"Britanny! Come out here for a minute please." Julia called.  
  
"Sure mom." Britanny called and stepped out side carrying a box of supplies, she was in her human form. Her clothing was a little baggy and revealing, but Ranma barely noticed, instead he eyed her body looking for some sign that she was different than a normal person. She put the box in the back of the car and eyed Ranma with a smirk. "I'm married you know."  
  
"Huh...no, no it's nothing like that!"   
  
"Uh huh." She said with a raised eyebrow and folded her arms.  
  
"I was just trying to see if you looked different."  
  
Britanny thrust her chest out. "As you can see all the parts are here."  
  
"That's not what I meant!"  
  
Britanny turned around and thrust her ass out and caressed it sexily and smiled at Ranma. "Then you were looking at this?"  
  
Ranma fainted.  
  
"Well that was fun." Britanny said as she giggled.  
  
"Britanny, you know how innocent he is, that was just plain mean." Gina said. She was secretly jealous she hadn't thought of it before this. Ranma was a lot of fun to tease.  
  
Britanny twisted and shifted into her hybrid form, half girl, half cheetah. It was over seven foot tall and strained the fit of the clothing on her human form. This was the form she preferred for pretty much everything because it came with all the advantages. Her hair darkened and the cheetah spots became more pronounced, her teeth changed and she developed a set of fangs, developed a thin coat of cheetah hair all over her body and sprouted a long cat like tail that pushed it's way out of hole specially designed for just that purpose. There was one final enhancement that she loved above all the others, a great rack. Her small breasts nearly doubled in sized when she transformed and were some of her best assets.   
  
In this body she could push herself to running speeds of over three hundred miles per hour and bench press nearly two tons without straining. The short son her human body had been comfortable, now they were hugging her curves like paint and outlined ever muscle and ripple around her waist, the shirt did the same, leaving nothing to the imagination as she flexed and posed out of habit. Her sisters were quite used to it, but if Ranma had been awake he would have fainted again. Britanny was a very sexy girl and took advantage of that fact whenever she could.  
  
"I'll feel much better! So is this stud going to come with us?" She asked and pointed at Ranma.  
  
"If we can wake him up, our flight with Ace leaves in a couple of hours." Gina said.  
  
"How come they waited so long before sending us?"  
  
"They had to get permission from all the board members of The Foundation, were going to be breaking a number of rules. They spent most of the morning arguing with each other."  
  
"How stupid can they get?" Britanny said in disgust and threw her hands up in the air.  
  
"I know sis, if I'd had my way from the beginning we would have been there already."  
  
"Yeah, yeah I know. Let's get going, you can brief me and stud muffin here on the way." Britanny said and picked Ranma up off the ground and sat him in the back seat of the car as if he was a child or a doll, she even put on his safety belt for him.  
  
They all piled into the car, Britanny staying in her hybrid form, and peeled out of the driveway. As an inventor, Gina designed her own cars and equipment, their car was no exception. She was always tinkering with it for one reason or another to fix or improve some minor flaw. Brianna used to help, but she tended to add in weapons of all kinds every time she had a chance too. Britanny was a little wary whenever she had to ride in the things, she recalled a time when she found out that all of Gina's car seats were rocket powered ejection seats complete with parachutes and rocket packs that would allow them to fly for several minutes before they had to land.  
  
Twenty minutes later Gina flew down a small road behind the Airport and pulled into a gate. The guard waved and let her through without much trouble, it seemed she was expected and that Ace was waiting for them to show. Ace was a tall, muscular black man who was one of the best pilots in the world. He had a talent for flying and had spent years flying everything from aero lites to 747's. Currently he was standing next to a specially built Osprey, complete with its rotor tilt wings and engines roaring. Ace was in a flight suit and pulled a lever on the side of the plane and the back end opened up and turned into a ramp for Gina to drive into.  
  
Inside was just enough room to hold their car and all the equipment that had been delivered before they arrived. They all piled out, except Ranma who was still out cold, and started loading all the specialized stuff onto the car and into a special harness in the trunk that allowed for easy access to all equipment. Ace followed them in and closed the ramp as he came in. He pointed to a small pile of boxes set to the side.  
  
"The Foundation sent those for you to use Gina, Penny dropped them off when she arrived a few minutes ago." Ace said and adjusted his hat.  
  
Gina stepped forward and adjusted her glasses, the boxes were a series of small crates and a couple of brief cases. "What are they?"   
  
"Those are some things that Penny was asked to bring you, two sets of Environment Suits and other odds and ends."  
  
"I don't understand, I already brought along my own Suits. Why would I need these?"  
  
"Penny said they were more maneuverable than normal ones, that way Charlotte and Cheetah could use them without being restricted."  
  
"How is that possible?"  
  
The door to the front cabin opened and Penny stepped out to meet them, behind her was her companion Charlotte. Charlotte was as odd as Cheetah in her own way, she was a six foot tall winged girl. She had once been a mindless bioweapon that one of their enemies had send after them, but Penny had managed to over ride her mental orders and tame her. Now she was a bodyguard and friend to all of them, though a little innocent when it came to real life. She grinned and ran over to hug Cheetah and Brianna while Gina and Penny talked. Cheetah had been teaching Charlotte how to fight and protect Penny for the last year or so.  
  
Penny knelt down and opened one of the cases and pulled out a scroll and a small box covered in Chinese characters. "This is a present given to us by one of the nearby villages. We have some contacts there that help us out from time to time."  
  
"Penny this place is forbidden for us to visit, how can we have contacts there?" Gina asked.  
  
"Easy, we can't go in, but they send people out ever couple of years to explore the world and get an education to bring back to the village. There is a counsel of Elders there that likes to keep track of the changes in the world. They even have a small amount of modern technology that is kept strictly regulated."  
  
"So what is this stuff?" Gina asked as she looked at the box and noted that is had a strange name, Jusenkyo Water Proof Soap.  
  
"It's soap, we all need to use it all over out bodies and we should have and immunity to the springs for a week, but we need to get ever inch of skin or else."  
  
"What a strange idea."  
  
"According to this scroll there is a minor enchantment on the stuff, a kind of herbal magic that a lot of these old villages still use. There should be enough there get Cheetah and Charlotte protected, but with as much fur and feathers those two have it will wear the stuff down fast."  
  
"What is in the other case?"  
  
"The Elders do not like to do anything for free, that is a contract for us to read and sign before we even land."  
  
"Contract for what?"  
  
Penny smirked. "The Elders want us to build them an electrical water plant near their village so they can begin to bring a better life to their people, but they want to do it on their terms."  
  
"Fair enough, I can build something I guess. Shouldn't take more than a week or so once I have an idea what is needed. With your help we can air lift whatever we need and get it here in a day or so."  
  
"My thoughts exactly, we can get them up and running in about a week, the only problem will be to teach them how to run and repair the thing."  
  
"We'll deal with that when the time comes, for now lets get ready for this, we have to stop Pee Wee before he causes to much trouble."  
  
"Well you deal with this, I need to get us up in the air." Ace said, hugged Penny, and headed up front.  
  
"So when are you two going to get things together?" Gina asked Penny.  
  
"Not for awhile, he avoids the subject like the plague."  
  
"Well keep trying."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, now back to this trip."  
  
**********  
  
Across the hold Ranma finally opened his eyes and groaned, he tried to recall what had happened to him. He cursed to himself when he realized he had 'fainted' of all things, of all the reactions that one angered him the most. He was a man, not a coward that could not deal with some girl trying to embarrass him. He closed his eyes again and sat back in the seat and spent a few minutes running through his daily meditations. In the last few weeks he had become quite good at doing the mediations and had soon calmed his mind into a certain state that allowed him to control his emotions.  
  
When he opened his eyes and looked around he didn't react as he noticed the car was inside some kind of metal box or the sound of huge engines rumbling around him. Then he saw something that nearly gave him a heart attack, even in a deep meditation trance, he saw a cat girl. She was tall, furry, had a tail and ears and probably one of the most beautiful creatures he had ever seen. She was talking to a bird girl, who was a little shorter than the cat girl and had a pair of wings on her back and larger than normal feet. Ranma had to force his fear down and followed the set of suggestions that the book had told him to do.  
  
He controlled his breathing, his Ki, and his actions with a will power that would have amazed his father. It took him several minutes to force himself to calm down and remind himself that a cat girl was not a cat, but something he did not need to be afraid of. That thought did more to calm Ranma than anything else, his fears seemed to be of the small house cats that his father had used than anything else. The big cats scared him too, but they not as common as some of the little ones. Keeping him in a state of calm, Ranma opened the door and stepped out of the car and stretched. From the aches in his body he had been sitting there for some time now.   
  
"Hi Ranma!" Gina and Brianna yelled and waved.  
  
He carefully nodded to the two of them and inched his way over to Britanny and looked her over. "Is t-this what they meant by calling you a were-thing?"  
  
"I'm a Were-Cheetah not a thing." Cheetah said indignantly.  
  
"Um...yeah, who are you..."  
  
Cheetah sighed and transformed back into her punny human form and looked up at Ranma to see his reaction. "I'm Britanny."  
  
Her transformation didn't surprise Ranma as much as he had expected, Gina had been telling him the truth. Her sister wasn't human, but a thing out of legend that his father had told him to destroy if he ever encountered any. Ranma rarely followed his fathers advice anymore, the old man was almost always wrong. "T-transform back p-please." Ranma stuttered out.  
  
Britanny was more than happy too and grinned in happiness to be back in the form that she preferred. "Are you alright with this form Ranma?"  
  
Ranma savagely controlled his fear and tried to push the fear out of him and not bury it as he had always done. "I...I need to g-get used to you in t-that form."  
  
"I understand Ranma, this is why I stayed away from you while you were at the house."  
  
"I-I know, just give me some time and I'll get over it."  
  
"Okay. Hey this is Charlotte, she is Penny's friend."  
  
Charlotte was a little confused and curious about what was going on. "Hi Ranma."  
  
Ranma relaxed as he turned to the bird girl. "Hello."  
  
"You don't need to worry about Cheetah, she would never hurt you."  
  
"It's not who she is, it's what she looks like. A c-cat."  
  
"A cat?"  
  
"When I was younger I was tossed in a pit full of starving cats to learn a martial arts technique, this was done over and over again until I started to fear the cats. Then some more until I lost mind due to the fear and regressed into a mindless state to get away from my fear. That mindless state is the Neko-ken."  
  
"What happens then Ranma?" Cheetah asked, she hadn't been told much about this while Ranma was around.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I have no idea what happens, when the Neko-ken activates I regress into a mindless state, while there I have no idea what I'm doing. I do know that I act like a cat, walking around on all fours and usually try to kill my father whenever I see him. I've put him in the hospital more than once because of it, usually when we were passing though a small town or village and ran across an alley cat or something."  
  
"That is horrible." Charlotte said and hugged Ranma, he stiffened in surprise since isn't used to human contact like some people.  
  
"Yeah...well..."  
  
"Its alright Charlotte, Ranma has been working for the last couple of weeks to learn some special mediation techniques to control his fear and master the technique." Gina said as she walked up.  
  
"He has?" Charlotte asked, she had tears in her eyes.  
  
"Yep, he's doing a lot better with this than I thought as well."  
  
"So long as she doesn't turn into to a real cat I can deal with it." Ranma said.  
  
"Um...okay, we can live with that. Now Ranma, head up front and take a seat, were in the air right now and will be landing in a couple of hours, then we have to drive the rest of the way in. I need to tell you what were heading into since you insisted on coming along, Penny is preparing some information for you to read."  
  
"Alright." Ranma said and went through the door Gina pointed out to him. This lead to the small main cabin of the plane, there were about 10 seats ready to hold people. Ranma stepped over to a window and looked out and gasped. They were up so high he could see the tops of the clouds below them, it was the most spectacular thing he had ever seen. He turned as he heard the door open behind him and Gina and Penny stepped over to him.  
  
"Alright Ranma, I need to tell you about Jusenkyo." Said Gina.  
  
"The Pools of Sorrow or Jusenkyo, two names for the same thing. Jusenkyo is a small valley with a number of natural springs that somehow became cursed with magic." Penny clarified.  
  
"That name sounds familiar for some reason." Ranma said.  
  
"You've heard of it before?"  
  
"...yeah, now I remember, pop was planning to go there for the last leg of our training trip before heading back to Japan. It's supposed to be an ancient training ground of some kind."  
  
Penny flipped through her notes for a second and nodded. "Yeah it is, there is a lot of fog that fills the valley at certain times of the year, each of the cursed springs have a bamboo pole sticking out of them. The object is to hop from one to the other whole fighting or running from one spring to the other."  
  
"What exactly are these curses?"  
  
"According to the files we have, they are transformation curses. The springs attract all kinds of animals, some of these drown and imprint that form into the water to form the curse. The next time something falls in they will take that form, whether it be a dog, a cat, or a human form of some kind." Gina said.  
  
"Is it permanent?"  
  
"In some rare cases. One of the Kingdoms in the area, the Musk, use the springs to make themselves wives and lock the victims in their cursed form."  
  
"Make wives?" Ranma paled.  
  
"They like to take animals like tigers, wolves, and even unwanted intruders and dunk them in a spring of drowned girl and lock them. Then force them to bare their children over and over until they die. They are not known for being very merciful to outsiders either."  
  
"Right now Pee Wee and his gang are planning to so something similar with the water, that is why we have to stop him."  
  
"Why haven't these kingdoms you mentioned done something."  
  
"Were not exactly sure, I don't care for some reason or another. Dad told me that magic like the springs tend to be able to protect themselves in some way and that we need to be extremely careful of them when we arrive." Gina said.  
  
"No kidding, I don't want to become cursed."  
  
"None of us do Ranma, that is why we need to prepare you and the others how to work in environment suits." Penny said.  
  
"What are those?"  
  
"A kind of full body plastic suit that will keep you from being splashed with water and other things in your environment."  
  
"Their a pain in the as too." Ranma heard and looked up to see Cheetah and Charlotte sitting nearby. "It's constricting and very fragile, I can't run or jump in the things without almost ruining them, but their better than the risk of a curse. I've already had to put up with one of those and don't want to put up with another."  
  
"Hey!" Brianna said and hit Cheetah across the head.  
  
"Sorry Brianna." Cheetah said and scratched the back of her head.  
  
"Anyway Ranma we want you to understand the danger here, it was one of the reason I did not want to bring you along."  
  
"I can take care of myself you know."  
  
"I never said you couldn't, but all of us have the training to do something like this. You never have and don't have a clue what you're getting into."  
  
"I'll be fine Gina, I've been training for over ten years now."  
  
"Training isn't good enough, only experience will help you in this and I you don't have any. Still we need to prepare you as best we can so the next few hours will be pretty busy for you Ranma." Gina said with a smirk and adjusted her glasses.  
  
Ranma did not like the feeling of this one bit.  
  
**********  
  
Ranma had never heard of a HAED or High Altitude Equipment Drop, he now wished he had never heard of it as Gina's car floated down to earth on a pair of very large parachutes. They had all piled into the car, including Penny, and buckled themselves in. Ranma had figured they would just land and back out, Gina had other ideas though as the back end of the plane opened and she just backed out while several hundred feet above the ground. Ranma was suddenly of the opinion that these girls were totally insane for doing something like this.  
  
The sight of Charlotte using her wings to glide down with them and giggling happily told him that it was regular thing. Gina tapped a couple of buttons on her dash board and she suddenly took control of their fall when a large fan flipped out of the trunk and pushed them in the direction she wanted to go. Ranma relaxed a little as they started to cover lots of ground, by the time they landed he had calmed himself down. The landing had been surprisingly soft as the parachutes were pulled in and stashed in the trunk again before they headed out. With Cheetah it had taken only a couple of minutes to get everything back in place.  
  
"I take it you guy have done this before?" Ranma asked of all of them.  
  
"Yep, It's just like riding a roller coaster." Cheetah enthused and bounced around a little.  
  
Gina and Penny took turns driving for the next few hours as the car made it's way across country. The car seemed to be like the Mach 5 to Ranma, it could float across rivers, had jump jets, and seemed to be able to deal with all sorts of terrain. At the same time he was given a crash course in using certain types of equipment like the environment suits, scanners, and even how to drive the car at one point when they had time. He picked everything up pretty quick and had the basics down by the time they topped a hill and they reached their destination. The valley was pretty good sized according to what had been described to him. It was mostly jungle like with an open glade here and there. The three kingdoms were set at three different areas around the valley, the Amazons controlled a good portion of the west valley and the mountains. The Musk had the denser areas in the southwest where they enforced an iron handed rule over all who lived there. The Phoenix had everything else and most of the mountain areas, all three kingdoms used Jusenkyo as a kind of neutral ground.  
  
Gina pulled the car to a stop when a dozen scantily glad girls stepped out of the trees and blocked their path. They all had weapons visible and were ready to use them, Ranma tensed and waited for them to make the first move. Gina opened the door and stepped out holding up a piece of paper.   
  
"Elder Cologne gave me permission to come here."   
  
"Are you the ones that are here to stop those idiots in Jusenkyo?" Said one in English. She was dressed in a kind of panther skin bikini and had lots of equipment on her. The others were all dressed in ways that had Ranma staring.   
  
"Yes." Gina said.  
  
Brianna noticed and thumped him in the head. "Cut that out before they get the wrong idea." She hissed.  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"Be careful, we explained about their rules and we don't need to get in trouble."  
  
"Leave the car here and follow us, all of you, the Elders want to talk to you before you head to Jusenkyo." Said the Amazon. "I'm Pu Fume."  
  
"Gina Diggers."  
  
"I don't care, follow us." Pu Fume snapped and motioned for them to follow them.  
  
She sent several of the others ahead of her to let the Elders know they were on the way. Everyone got out of the car and tried to keep up with Pu Fume's fast paced walking. Only Ranma and Cheetah had no problem keeping up and barely noticed that the others seemed to be struggling to keep up. The hike to the village took about twenty minutes and they were a little surprised to find that the village was in fact a rather large settlement that held nearly a thousand families all across one side of a small hill and well into that section of the valley. The whole village was surrounded by a rather formidable looking wall that was designed to protect everyone from invasion. The girls noted that there were about forty women walking along the wall and keeping watch over the entire area.  
  
Gina saw that there was a small group of really old women waiting for them as they approached one of the entrances to the village. There were two of them, both looked like a couple of skin colored Yoda's hanging from a couple of staves and balanced precariously. She didn't really know what to think of the two old ladies, only that that they put her on edge and knew that there was more to them that met the eye. Each of them had long gray/white hair that seemed to be longer than they were and bug like eyes.   
  
"Whoa! It's a couple of ugly looking monkey things!" Ranma said, staring at the two old women in astonishment.   
  
They dropped to the ground, looked at each other and nodded, and bopped Ranma on the head. He flew back out of the group, landed hard and skidded across the ground for several feet and came to a dead stop at the feet of Brianna and Penny who had been following the group. Ranma of course, was out cold and completely out of it, the old women just chuckled and turned to Gina. Everyone else just stared at Ranma and what the two old women had just done to him. He was a pretty good martial artist after all, they must have been pretty good to get the drop on him like that.  
  
"My name is Cologne and this is a fellow Elder Lotion."  
  
"Hello young lady, which one of you is Penny Pincer?" Lotion asked in flawless English.  
  
"That would be me." Penny said and stepped forward. "We agreed to help you out and signed the contract as you requested."  
  
"Excellent, when can we begin to see some work done on the Hydro Electric Plant?" Cologne asked.  
  
"If everything goes as we plan, within the month."  
  
"That soon?"  
  
"Yes, we already have most of the equipment. We just need to see the area you want it set up and to get it ready to air lift it in."  
  
"Good, good we can talk about the details once you finish your mission at Jusenkyo." Cologne said and eyed Britanny and Cheetah. "Are those two going with you?"  
  
"Yes they are." Penny said.  
  
"The were-cheetah I can understand, but how did you get someone from the Phoenix people to help you out?"  
  
"Charlotte isn't from Phoenix Mountain Elder, she is here own person, I've never known her to have any contact with any of them."  
  
Cologne hopped over to Charlotte and looked her over carefully, seemed to come to some decision and moved back over to Lotion. "Jusenkyo is just down that path over there Miss. Pincer, if the magic of the area allows you to enter, you will find it there."  
  
"Allows us? I had thought we would not have any trouble entering Jusenkyo." Gina said. This could set their plans back until Pee Wee decided to leave on his own, she was already revising her plans in case that possibility arrived.  
  
"The Magic of Jusenkyo will only allow those it wants to enter the Valley, all others are forever barred from entering it." Cologne said.  
  
"With Pee Wee there are our chances better or worse for making it in?"  
  
"I don't know, Jusenkyo will make it's own decisions."  
  
"Thanks for the info Elder."  
  
"Good luck to you young ones, I will speak to you on your return." Cologne said and hopped back into the village.  
  
Ranma groaned and sat up just as the Elders hopped off into the village and for once decided to keep his mouth shut. Anyway his head hurt to much to think of anything other than the little birdies flying around it. He was aware enough to realize he hadn't taken a hit quite like that one in a very long time, those old women had taken him completely by surprise. That more than anything meant they had his respect, but there would be a rematch if he had any thing to say about it. Ranma looked u at Brianna.   
  
"How long was I out?"  
  
"Just a few minutes stud, they hit you pretty hard to send you flying back like that."  
  
"They got me once, it won't happen again." Ranma said and staggered to his feet.  
  
"Yeah right Ranma, your mouth gets you into more trouble than anything else."  
  
"Humph, I'll get that old woman for that too." Ranma said cockily.  
  
Gina and Penny yell for everyone to gather around. "Alright everybody, we need to get back to the car and get ready to take on Pee Wee and his goons. So lets move out and get it done."   
  
**********  
  
Gina's car was marvel, just when Ranma thought he had seen everything that it was capable of he would find something new. In this case it was that the glove box folded down into a high powered computer up link with the main lab in America. She accessed them in a matter of minutes and everyone was able to see a picture form on the screen of this Pee Wee and his goons still working at Jusenkyo. There were now several tables set up around the helicopter that held all of the kid's equipment. Close examination showed several crates filled with tightly sealed containers of water. The satellite picture wasn't good enough to read the labels though, but Brianna said that was easy enough to fix if she had a few hours to throw something together.  
  
According to Gina and Penny, this Pee Wee was studying the water for something with all that equipment. This had them worried more than the girls were willing to admit, but they kept it to themselves while making explanations. Ranma noted, but spent his time going over the lay out of the springs and planning the best strategy for his attack. The fog that seemed to cling to the area was weird too, it wasn't moving with the winds that seemed to be a common feature with this valley. He also watched Daishi as he worked, how he walked and held himself as he moved. The guy showed some skill, but Ranma realized that he should have been able to take the guy down. How had he lost that first fight?  
  
"What is wrong Ranma?" Penny asked from the other seat when she saw him narrow his eyes and frown.  
  
"That Daishi guy was able to defeat me the other day, but now that I watch him I can't see how. His muscles don't move right and he isn't as graceful as he should be, I have more training than he does and it shows in our styles."  
  
"Has Gina explained about what Pee Wee is doing and has done?"  
  
"Not really, why?"  
  
"Pee Wee is a Jerk, but he is very dangerous to normal people. Daishi, Zelda, and Ionis are all people that have sworn loyalty to him for some special favors."  
  
"What kind of favors?"  
  
"The kid knows how to manipulate DNA and improve the human body to perfection. In Zelda, the woman there, she used to be a typical one from the records I've seen. She was a wimp and loser who was slightly overweight and the one kid that got picked on in school the most. Now because of Pee Wee she is several inches taller, has an incredible body and better figure. Pee Wee screwed up when he enhanced her with higher strength, speed, and power and caused her to lose all the hair on her body. Daishi was a below average fighter that was growing desperate when he went to Pee Wee, he was given a great body and access to the training he needed to become the fighter he is today."  
  
"You mean they didn't earn what they have, but it was given to them?"  
  
"Um...yes, that is pretty accurate." Penny said. "Still, do not underestimate them. Pee Wee uses a mixture of Magic and Science to do what he does. Were pretty sure Ionis is where his magic comes from, but completely sure, it may have something to with his parents. We have next to no information on them, but there are rumors that the brat's parents are a thousand times worse than he is."  
  
Ranma was surprised when he understood what he was being told and got out of the car to walk around to think. He went over everything he had been told and realized that this was going to be more than a regular fight. He hadn't even considered that before this, it hadn't really registered, but he still wasn't going to back down. This was a serous situation and these girls were willing to risk themselves to accomplish it, he could do no less. He wandered over to a nearby tree to meditate some more and think of the best way to take on Daishi. Ranma recalled the battle with Daishi and went over once again inside his mind, second by second, analyzing his every movement and reaction.  
  
He had done this a couple of times already and even used his special mediation exercises to go over the fight. At one point Julia had helped him to look at it from a different point of view and learn even more from the fight. It took him close to an hour to do it, but he eventually found a way to defeat Daishi and what his weakness was. Just like his father had been teaching him to do for years. At the same time he kept a silent watch over the girls as they prepared for the attack. Ranma was looking forward to the upcoming battle and his rematch with the wanabe ninja. He had learned a lot of new things in the last couple of weeks and even had some strategies to use against him.   
  
Watching from the car Gina had noted that Ranma, though nervous, wasn't as scared of Cheetah as she moved around in her hybrid from, at least not as much as he should have been. It was the first clue she had that he was beginning to get over the Neko-ken and would someday be free of the fear, though she admitted that he probably wasn't looking at her as if she was a cat, but a girl. It was just a first step though and she was almost positive that he would be ready to go through the special training her mother had been preparing for him lately. Getting out, she stretched and went to check on her equipment again.   
  
"Is everyone ready?" Penny called.  
  
They all came to stand by the car as the girl passed out a set of specialized environmental suits that the Diggers used when needed. Like everything else Gina and Brianna used, these had been 'improved' upon. They were set up in two different layers, The first layer was a pair of pants and a jacket that could be pulled over one's clothes, both of these had the gloves and boots built right into them. Once this was on there was a button on the collar that adjusted the outer layer to the wearers inner body suit and isolated everything from the neck down into an environmentally safe set up. The final layer was the helmet, something that Gina had designed to be used in an emergency, it had a kind of heads up display that detailed information to the wearer on the suits integrity. It had bits and pieces that hung down the front and back that sealed like the suit did and made an air tight seal.   
  
The spent several minutes getting dressed and making sure everything was a good fit and comfortable. Gina explained that the suits were designed to take a little bit of abuse, but that they still needed to be careful no to damage them in any way. "Okay everybody, don't put the helmets on until we are close to Jusenkyo. They only have about two hours of air in them. The open face plate is set up to give you better sight and reaction time. These suits are water proof and used mainly to keep you from being touched by certain materials, they are also radiation proof to a small degree, but don't push your luck if something like that happens."  
  
"Cheetah, Charlotte, did you two get a chance to use that soap that the elder sent along?" Gina asked.  
  
"Yeah, we did it while you and Penny were talking to Ranma on the plane. I don't plan using that stuff again anytime soon either, that stuff was nasty."  
  
"Ace has a shower on his plane? Where in the world does he keep it?"  
  
"It's pretty small, just enough room to step in, get wet, and so what you need to do and nothing else. Though there might be more room for Ace in there, me and Charlotte are pretty large..." Cheetah said with a giggle.  
  
"Right, so you followed the instructions to the letter?"  
  
"Yeah, every square inch."  
  
Gina nodded and hoped it would be enough, then pulled out a map and looked around the area while she got her bearings before pointing in certain direction. "We need to head that way until we get closer to the foot hills of the valley. We should find a little used path that heads right for Jusenkyo."  
  
Ranma occupied himself on the walk by getting a feel for the suit he was wearing, how it restricted his movements and the way it moved with him. The material was tight enough to be quiet, but he hoped that the thing would not be problem in the fight. No matter what the danger was he wanted to be able to fight to the best of his ability if he had to and the suit would go if it got in his way. Even if he had to rip it to shreds to remove it, the girls had not told him how to get out of it if he needed to.  
  
It took them another twenty minutes to finish up before they headed out on foot, into an area that Ranma had a bad feeling about. He had listened to the explanations and watched the girls as they prepared and come to the conclusion that this was going to be a fight to the finish. The girls were scared and trying not to show it, that more than anything drove home to Ranma just how much danger they were in. These girls had been through some things that baffled his mind at times. Explored ancient ruins, discovered magical items and hidden cities, and nearly been eaten by a pissed off dragon. They had even found several of the old races, those that were said to be extinct or gone.   
  
Now they were heading into a dangerous place to pick a fight and take down someone before he could learn too much. Gina watched on a map where they were going and eventually found a trail that lead higher up the mountain. It was the one they were looking for, a small sign at the side of the trail said that going that direction was a very bad idea. All around them were trees and bushes that hid their goal from sight, but eventually they carefully rounded a small hill and saw the beginnings of Jusenkyo Valley and its infamous springs. Gina motioned for them to stop and hold back.  
  
There was a thick fog hovering above the springs even though there was a breezed quietly moving through the valley. It was an eerie sight that caused the all to shiver. Ranma noticed that his senses were dulled for some reason as he looked the springs over, as if something was trying to hide from him. He was careful where he stepped and made sure he didn't let his guard down. He peeked through the bushes and looked out over the foggy area to watch what was happening on the other side of the valley. The rest of the group joins him a few seconds later. Ranma watches the bird girl and the cat girl out of the corner of his eye and suppresses a shiver. He would be thankful when he got over this fear of cats, that Cheetah was giving him the creeps. Luckily after ten years he had learned to keep a tiny amount of control around c-cats.  
  
He focused on his meditation techniques and took a few seconds to regain his inner balance. He would not be ruled by his stupid fear of a house cat! Looking back out at the springs he watched as Daishi and Zelda go about their business, collecting more samples of water. There was a series of tables set up in front of the helicopter filled with computer equipment and a young kid in a lab coat typing a way and examining some thing. Ranma also spotted some movement inside the helicopter and took a closer look. He saw a series of empty cages, one of them was holding something that was moving.  
  
"There's cages in the 'copter holding some animal." Ranma said.  
  
Gina looked through her binoculars. "He's right, but I can't tell what kind of animal it is."  
  
"Something about this place is messing up my senses, I can't smell what it is either." Cheetah said. "How about you Charlotte?"  
  
"Charlotte no!" Penny hissed. "Where in the hell did those come from?!"  
  
"Peanuts!"  
  
GOBBLE, SNARF, CHOMP, MUNCH  
  
"Charlotte, be quiet..."  
  
Charlotte was a bit occupied, she was sitting in the middle of the trail scarfing down a large bag of peanuts that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Penny grabbed the bag and tried to pry it out of Charlotte's hands, but it didn't even budge and the winged girl didn't even seem to notice as she continued to snarf the things. Peanuts were one of the foods that Charlotte never tired of and could spend hours and hours eating the things. She just wouldn't stop until they were all gone, even if she was full she didn't stop. That was why Penny was desperately trying to pull the bag away, if she didn't there were enough there to make the girl sick after a while. She had once eaten so much that she was mistaken for pregnant woman and nearly taken to the hospital, Penny did not want to go through that again. Charlotte was to innocent to understand what was going on.  
  
"Where did those come from?" Cheetah asked.  
  
Gina shrugged and looked a little nervous, she had no idea where they had come from. "I have no idea, but I don't like the way this is looking."  
  
"This is weird."  
  
"They've spotted us." Ranma said out of the blue. "Bird girl their is making to much noise, the ninja heard her."  
  
Gina looked back out over the springs, but couldn't find anything wrong. "How do you know, he looks the same."  
  
"It's how he's moving. He was calm and relaxed as he worked a few seconds ago, then after Bird Girl yelled he tensed up for a second before pretending to continue to work. He's trying to do one thing while acting like he is doing something else, pops taught me what to look for the signs I needed to know so I could detect it."  
  
"Why would you need to know that?" Gina asked.  
  
"Pops is a thief and a con artist, he's spent years trying to make me into one. He hasn't succeeded yet though, I never wanted to be like that. It's to dishonorable in the long run and I don't want to be like that. The old jerk."  
  
"Good for you, now lets get this settled. If were lucky we can get this over with quickly..." Gina said, but something dropped to the ground at their feet and exploded.   
  
Ranma reacted instinctively by grabbing Gina at speeds that could have matched Cheetah, jumping back with a long distance flip, and setting her down before she even had time to know what was going on. She fell down in shock, not used to being saved quite like that and looked up at Ranma as he glared into the after math of the explosion. All around them the girls had dodged out of the way and taken up defensive positions. Cheetah was instantly at Gina's side and grateful for Ranma's quick thinking. While Penny was blown off her feet and thrown back several feet. Charlotte was knocked over as well, but she just groaned and stayed there.  
  
"They were waiting for us!" Gina called and tapped a button on her belt.  
  
"You better believe it." Said Zelda as she stepped out walked out of the blast crater carrying a super soaker. Gina had seen the thing before and could tell that Pee Wee had modified it in some way.  
  
"Zelda you and the pip squeak have gone to far this time." Penny said as she stood up and examined Charlotte. She was sleeping peacefully.  
  
"She was an easy one to take out, those drugged peanuts were the perfect bait." Zelda said with a smirk and smirked as she brought her super soaker around and pointed it in the general direction of Gina, Ranma, and Cheetah.  
  
Ranma narrowed his eyes and began to build his Ki up for a super fast run, the bald girl's weapon was weird, but had knew how guns worked. All he had to do was stay out of the way of the tip of it and he would be safe. He suddenly blurred from sight, running right at Zelda, who pulled the trigger and sent out a powerful stream of water. Ranma barely noticed as he weaved around it easily and attacked with a blow that would take the girl out without much pain. Daishi appeared in front of him and blocked the blow easily and sent Ranma flying back in an over the shoulder throw.  
  
"Cheetah, take out Zelda and help Ranma, I'm going for Pee Wee." Gina called as the broke away from the fight and ran for the helicopter.  
  
"Gotcha." Cheetah said and ran right at Zelda.   
  
Ranma and Daishi were bouncing around the area at speeds that few could follow, attacking and counter attacking. Unlike the last fight, Ranma was at his peak and had spent the last two weeks training at levels that would have nearly killed anyone else. His speed and skill had grown almost exponentially and this was giving Daishi quite a surprise, Ranma hadn't been this good the last time they fought. He was going to have to go all out to take him down this time, but he was ninja, so that meant that he would do anything that was needed to do so.   
  
As the fight moved around the small area, neither of them noticed as they started to make their way over towards the Jusenkyo springs and the poles sticking out of the water. Cheetah's fist slammed into Zelda's jaw and sent the woman flying back into a tree, where she slumped to the ground and...vanished. Cheetah growled and looked around consciously, Zelda didn't do magic and was barely a decent fighter, so she figured Ionis was lurking around somewhere. A twig snapped and Cheetah spun to see a sign on the ground that said *Sucker!* and screamed in shock as a spray of water washed over her back.  
  
"HA!! TAKE THAT YOU PEST, SPRING OF DROWNED SNAIL!" Zelda yelled.  
  
Cheetah started to hyperventilate, her heart racing, but calmed down when nothing happened. She slowly stood up and shook herself, sending the water flying in all directions, but Zelda dove out of the way and avoided getting cursed. "You're going to have to do better than that Baldy."  
  
"How!!" Zelda screamed and fired off another blast of water that Cheetah dodged.  
  
"Would you believe beauty soap?" Cheetah said with a laugh and put the bald girl down for the count and crushed the super soaker under her foot. A small button, attached to Zelda's boot flared with light and vaporized its self, the limited magic spent. Cheetah spent a couple of minutes tying the girl up and looked around, she noticed that Penny was gone. Charlotte was still snoring peacefully.  
  
Flipping through the air, Ranma and Daishi exchanged a number of blows before landing on a pole and adjusting his balance. Then noticed where he was and gulped in shock, of all the places to fight, right over the stupid springs was probably one of the worst places to do it. Daishi landed on a nearby pole and smirked at this foe, he was exactly where he wanted him now, at his mercy. His environmental suit was strong enough to protect him if he took a plunge, but this Ranma had no such protection. His head wasn't covered and there were numerous holes in the suit he was wearing.  
  
"You don't stand a chance against me boy."  
  
"Oh I don't know, I seem to be holding my own." Ranma said calmly.  
  
"One little dip and you will be out of the way, defeated and useless the instant you fall."  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Then I won't fall."  
  
"Your arrogance will be your down fall."  
  
"Hah, hasn't stopped me yet."  
  
They leaped and engaged, punches and kicks lashed out and were used to keep each other in the air for a precious few seconds, then with a rebound they landed again. Time and again the clashed and landed, moving all across the valley, then Daishi did something that Ranma hadn't considered just yet. The ninja jumped higher into the air and brought his hands forward, his body taking on a bright glow.  
  
"HADDOKEN!!" He screamed and sent a wave of energy right at Ranma.  
  
He was caught in the air and slammed by the blast, it was like taking a sledge hammer in the chest, and sent crashing into a spring with a mighty splash. Laughing loudly, Daishi landed on a pole for second and flipped over to dry land to see what the boy would come out of the spring as. The sign that told him what the spring was impossible to read and buried in the bushes along side the spring. After several seconds Daishi wondered why nothing had emerged from the spring took a step closer and look into its depths. He could see nothing at first, the water was too cloudy, then an arm shot out of the water and pulled him bodily.   
  
"AGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"  
  
Caught by surprise, Daishi was helpless for few seconds, but that was all Ranma needed to as he used the Saotome Special Water Attack: Breathless Blow. It was a series of torso blows that were designed to impede the air flow of the victims breathing. Daishi was slammed against the bottom of the spring, grabbed by Ranma while he was struggling for air, and they launched them out of the spring. He body slammed the large ninja into the ground using the weight of his body to embed his knee into his stomach. That and a blow to Daishi's head knocked the ninja out and Ranma flipped off.  
  
Landing on the ground a few feet away, Ranma could tell that something was dreadfully wrong. His balance was off, as was his timing and sense of self seemed different. While fighting he had been able to ignore what had happened, but now that the fight was over he looked at the spring that he had fallen in then down at himself. His hands were smaller, he felt weaker and...there was something wrong with his body. He could not deny that anymore, something was different than normal.  
  
"Oh to bad Mr. Customer, you fall in spring, very tragic story." The guide said as he walked up.  
  
"What did I get knocked into?" Ranma asked, though from his voice he had a pretty good clue.  
  
"Spring of Drowned Girl, Tragic story of girl who was drowned her 1500 years ago by Musk to make a better bride stock."  
  
Pale, Ranma looked down at his chest and noticed that there was something there that shouldn't have been. He opened the environmental suit, noticing all the holes in the material, and tossed it to the side. His silk shirt was soaked and cut up as well, inside were a pair of breasts, his...her nipples were hard from the cold water of the spring...  
  
"AAGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Ranma screamed and screamed and screamed until he forced himself to gain control.  
  
"You see sir, you turn into a girl." The guide said.  
  
"P-please tell me there is a cure for this?" Ranma asked, his voice calm and quiet.  
  
"Sorry Mr. Customer, there no cure except for hot water."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Cold water turn you to girl, hot water will change you back to a man until cold water finds you again."  
  
"So this isn't a permanent change?"  
  
"Customer can change back and forth now."  
  
"Well that is good..." Ranma said with a deathly calm, then turned to the inflictor of curses laid out on the ground behind him. Daishi was uncured and still male, a state of affairs that was not going to last. A red rage welled up inside Ranma and he felt his power well up inside him with an ease that he had not managed to do in all the time he had been training.  
  
Raising his hand up, a rather large aura formed around Ranma. The guide moved off to safety, glad Mr. Costumer wasn't taking his curse out on him like a lot of others did at this time. The Ki blast fired out and blew up the instant it hit Daishi, sending him flying into the air in a high arc until he came down in a spring some distance away. It was a pretty good belly flop too. Ranma had to resist sending out several more Ki blasts to annihilate the bastard that had done this to him. Slumping to the ground, Ranma had to fight back tears of self hatred and disgust at himself. Of all the curses here he could have lived with any of them but this one, it was an affront to everything he had ever been.  
  
**********  
  
Gina, Brianna, and Penny crept through the grass as they tried to sneak up on Pee Wee and his little lab.  
  
"Gina?" Brianna asked.  
  
"Yeah sis?"  
  
"Why are we doing this?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Sneaking though the grass."  
  
"To get over to Pee Wee and stop him of course."  
  
"So, we both have weapons that can take him out from here, lets just take him down and get it over with."  
  
Gina blinked and blushed, she hadn't been thinking like that. She was an explorer, not a hero or anything like that so an easy take down was the furthest thing from her mind. She nodded and Brianna reached into her pack and pulled out a couple of Peebo's. They looked super cute as they sat there, Gina noted that there were little number on their backs and that their tails stuck in the air. Brianna hit a couple of buttons. "Go and blow up the front end of the helicopter 67."  
  
"Gotcha Boss." Said a very deep male voice and it rolled off.  
  
"What is wrong with it's voice Brianna, their usually very cute and cuddly in an explosive kind of way." Penny asked.   
  
"These are the 60's series, I have been experimenting with them. The voice is a side effect of increasing their vocabulary and response time. I'm not sure where the problem is though, all the programming checks out as being correct."  
  
"What about the other one?" Gina asked.  
  
"This is a part of the 90's series, see he has a little 92on his back. I designed this one for when we next go to Jade."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Brianna smirked. "92?"  
  
"92 active Boss." It said in a normal voice.  
  
"There is a magic user around her somewhere, find him and take him out."  
  
"Gotcha Boss." The Peebo rolled forward a few feet, stopped and spun around in a circle.  
  
"What's it doing?" Penny asked.  
  
"Just watch."  
  
After several seconds it stopped and zoomed off in towards the other side of the clearing. Then at almost the same time it, and 67, suddenly exploded at exactly the same time. The front of the helicopter rose up and came back down in a pile of scrap even as Gina rose up and fired her 'bubble' gun at Pee Wee and encased him in an escape proof bubble. Only Ionis would have been able to get him out of it without Gina's help, and he landed at there feet, his clothing charred and smoke wafting off his blasted body. He groaned and passed out, Penny spent a few seconds tying him up.  
  
"Brianna, how do you keep your little toys from killing people?" Penny asked and nudged the smoking bad guy with a toe as she stood up, she looked a little sick.  
  
"The 90 series are designed to use concussive force to surprise a magic user and overwhelm his defenses. I used the anti-magic tech we developed to upgrade them a few weeks ago, this is the first time I've had to test them." Brianna said happily, bouncing from foot to foot doing a little happy dance.  
  
"Um...yeah." Penny said and stepped away a little and shook her head.  
  
Gina walked over to where Pee Wee was pounding against bubble and shouting at them. It was sound proof so Gina ignored him. She tapped her collar and sealed her environment suit, brought up her gun and laid into Pee Wee's equipment. Brianna followed suit and they continued until the whole set up was a slagged and smoking ruin. Pee Wee was on his knees crying at the loss of his precious equipment. They dragged Ionis over and tossed him in the bubble with Pee Wee, both of them were then gassed to make sure they stayed where they wanted them to.  
  
The rest was pretty easy as they made sure that all the sample were taken care of, they failed to notice the little pig locked in a cage inside the helicopter, having forgotten all about it in the ensuing battle. As they walked off it tried to get their attention, but couldn't hear it over the sound of the flames that were finishing off the little brat's computers. It had thought the explosions were pretty neat, but it didn't want to stay in this cage any longer than it had already. It's mind had burned the little punk's name and face into its memory and placed it along side his pigtailed enemy. They would both die if he ever got his hands them now.  
  
"BWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!" The transformed Ryoga yelled.(Translates as HEY WHAT ABOUT ME!!!!!!!!)  
  
  
To Be continued...  
  
**********  
  
Notes: Here ends chapter 02 of Golden Opportunity. It took me about 2 months to write this and I'm still not satisfied with it. This story, unlike my R/SM stories is really hard to write and takes a lot longer to get ready that usual. Comments would be much appreciated and wanted since I have no idea where to go with this story right now. I'm trying not to copy any of Broken Hearts Combined or Ranma Neko or any of two or three other Ranma/Gold Digger crosses out there.  
  
I tried to do this story like I was Princes Moon, from the beginning of both series and found that whatever I came up with just didn't work all that well because of the age difference in the characters. So I decided I needed access to all of the known history of Gold Digger so it is set near the current comics.  
  
This story will be continued as mentioned above, but not for awhile or unless I get a lot of people asking for it. I need to get some chapters done on my other stories and this one is above 200kb at the moment. The Replacement and Uncles is up next for updates so until next time, I leave you these...  
  
**********  
  
Quotes from the Gold Digger comic:  
  
"GINA! GINA! LOOK! TARGETS!" - Brianna Diggers   
  
"I smell a free-for-all *grin*" - same gun crazy Brianna   
  
"I love the smell of nitro in the morning!" Brianna again.  
  
"The disguises worked before, they sed... they'll never ever notice us, they sed... When this is over, there's gonna be some serious KAPOWIES DISHED OUT!" - Sheila, were-Jaguar of the Edge Guard   
  
"Jinkies!" Gina Diggers favorite quote.   
  
"Pay no attention to my husband, girls... he always get defensive after I've defeated a magic user with plain ole common sense!"  
"I do not!" - Julia and Theodore Diggers   
  
"Whoa!! Baby got back!" Peverted Skeleton. ^^  
  
********** 


	3. Chapter 03

Notes - A new chapter alread? Yep, thought it is a bit shorter than the first two.   
  
  
**********  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 03  
By C. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c) 2002  
**********  
  
Shock was a thing that Ranma had only heard about in stories, he would have never considered himself to be someone that could be affected by it. There he was sitting on the ground in front of everyone, he hadn't said a word to anyone since he woke up and that had been to scream again. The guide had informed him of the curse again and demonstrated how it worked to everybody by switching him back and forth several times. Ranma didn't even blink, move, or acknowledge anything around him as this happened. On some level he noticed the change, but to consciously think about it brought him into nightmare territory. What would his father say, his mother, could he even live with this kind of thing?  
  
Ranma had no idea, he didn't want to be a girl, to be weak and useless. Every insult his father had ever said to him came back to haunt Ranma every time he blinked. At the same time the was seeing Julia, Gina, Penny, and Brianna as they worked and lived. They could have fun and do things that Ranma had never pictured girls doing before. They built machines, weapons and were very confident in themselves. Julia, a girl, had beaten him in their sparing matches two or three times a day for weeks now. How did that make her weak and useless, Ranma didn't know but that was how he thought of her and all the other girls.   
  
What kind of freak had he become? Did this mean that he had to start dating guys or was there something else he was missing? He knew that Gina and Brianna were trying to comfort him as he lay there in a ball of misery in front of the Guide's small hut. They didn't know what to do to help him, they had tried to take as many precautions as they could to make sure none of them were cursed, but Zelda and Daishi had attacked them before they were ready and led them into a trap that had only caught Ranma. Pee Wee hadn't considered they would get outside help and that had foiled most of the trap because Cheetah had been immune to the water. She had been the main target of the trap while everyone else was led away. Instead they had gotten Ranma because his environmental suit was cut up and burned in several places, he hadn't even had time to get his helmet on either. Just because they were hit five minutes before they were ready.   
  
Gina felt horrible about it too, this had been her plan in the first place and it had failed. She didn't mess up to often, but when she did, things like this happened to her friends. Brianna had suggested using the same method that they had used to create her, but Gina had never been able to figure out what made that experiment go wrong in the first place. All of her tests had ended up with the creation of Brianna in one form or another, but with no clues about how it happened. Gina figured Ranma wouldn't want a female version of himself running around so she tossed that idea out as a last resort, she had caused him enough pain as it was. She thought about trying to talk to her dad, but he liked for his children to figure this stuff out on their own and would only help he thought it would do some good. She also suspected that he couldn't do much of anything about this, some memory of hers, that was just out of reach, was nagging at her too.  
  
There had to be something there, but it just wasn't coming to her for some reason and that worried Gina. Ranma was in a very dangerous state right now, he would be unpredictable for the next few days and they had to make sure he didn't do something stupid or rash. They needed to find a way to calm him down and get explain the situation to him, what they could and could not do. She hugged the boy, but he was totally unresponsive to her actions, even Brianna had failed and she had spent more time with him than anyone else since he arrived except her mother.  
  
"Damn it, how did this happen?" Gina asked everybody.  
  
"Were not sure Gina, we think Daishi tricked him in some way, but we don't know."  
  
"We took as many precautions as we could and Ranma still got a curse. Was he careless or did something else happen?"  
  
"Gina calm down, we will figure out what happened, alright."  
  
Gina forced herself to take a deep breath and calmed her mind, she knew that she thought better when her emotions were not out of control. "Alright, but we will get this sorted out, Ranma knew the dangers of this place and he still got cursed. We all did and yet he is the only one that ended up with a curse." Gina turned to the Guide. "What did you see?"  
  
"Mr. Customer and other customer have savage fight, it obvious that older fighter was trying to hurt boy. Witness lethal blows being used and young sir barely avoiding as they bounced from pole to pole, other customer use Ki attack while young sir in the air between poles and sent him into spring. There no way to defend in time, young sir get cursed."  
  
"Daishi did beat Ranma last time." Brianna said.  
  
"But I thought he had improved enough to beat ninja boy?" Cheetah said.  
  
"Apparently he hadn't done enough training yet, we shouldn't have brought him with us."  
  
"I agree, but it is too late now. We have to help him through this until we can get him cured." Gina said sadly. "Guide, will a dip in the drowned man spring help him?"  
  
"No, curses mix."  
  
"Damn!"  
  
"What happened to Daishi anyway? Can we talk to him?" Penny asked.  
  
"No, he got away after Ranma tossed him into a spring. We don't know which one he landed in and he was gone by the time the Guide went over there to fish him out." Brianna said.  
  
"What about Charlotte?"  
  
"Those peanuts were drugged with something that put her to sleep, she's is still out of it." Penny said.  
  
"They must have been waiting for us, to catch us off guard, but if they were why did they go down so easily?"  
  
"I think Pee Wee was waiting for just you and Cheetah to show up, the rest of us ruined the plan. Zelda went right for Cheetah, the one person that is always beating her at everything. Every time they meet each other Cheetah usually embarrasses her in some way, no matter what kind of genetic tinkering Pee Wee has done to improve her."  
  
"Zelda is a wimp, it's not my fault she is so easy to beat." Cheetah said with a shrug.  
  
Gina ignored her sister and stood up, she had to find a way to help Ranma. He would not have been in this situation if he hadn't ever met them. "Cheetah, what happened to that soap?"  
  
"Me and Charlotte used it all, it was just a small bar after all. That was why you wanted the rest of us to wear the environmental suits in the first place. There wasn't enough to go around."  
  
"There was nothing left over that Ranma could have used?"  
  
"I have no idea, Charlotte used the soap after me. I assume she used it all up or packed it away."  
  
"Great, I can't even ask her what happened to the stuff since she's out cold. Unless you know something Penny?"  
  
"Sorry Gina, Charlotte never said a thing."  
  
"Alright. Cheetah, can you pick up Ranma, we need to get him back to the car and head home."  
  
"What about Pee Wee, Zelda, and Ionis?"  
  
"The Amazons are going to hold them until The Foundation can send out a security team to pick them up. We don't have the room in the car to take them out of here, I was hoping to use the Helicopter, but since we destroyed that..."  
  
"How long will they be the Amazon's guests?"  
  
Gina shrugged. "I have no idea, a week or so I guess."  
  
"What about Ace, he could bring his Osprey in here, land, and take us all out with ease."  
  
"Wouldn't work, they barely let us bring the car in here, the three Kingdoms all try to keep the modern world from intruding."  
  
"So no plane ride, huh?"  
  
"Nope, now pick up Ranma."  
  
"Yeah, yeah." Cheetah said and reached down to pick up the still catatonic boy, she felt sorry for him. The curse had to play havoc with his self image and he liked to think of himself as being confident and very masculine.  
  
"Guide, do you know of a cure for this?"  
  
He shook his head. "Have never heard of one, but Amazons may know since they keep many, many records than me."  
  
"We have to stop there on the way back anyway, I'll ask the elder when we get there. Thanks for your help."  
  
The Guide nods and steps into his hut.  
  
**********  
  
On the drive back to the airport Gina uses the time to scan Ranma with her on board computer and becomes even more worried. The scans are coming back weird, they are like nothing she has ever seen before. It was bad enough the boy was still in shock and that they had been forced to sedate him, but her scans were telling her that something was wrong with him. She had spent a long time getting him back into decent health, this set back was not going to do anymore damage to Ranma. His life has had to much pain in it already, she would not give up on him. Gina sighed, she needed to get things ready at home.  
  
Reaching out she tapped a button that would call home. She had spent some time building and installing a decent phone system into her car. Touch screen controls and all that had made her job so much easier. The phone rang.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Mom?"  
  
"Gina, what's up?"  
  
"We ran into a problem."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"It was a trap just like we thought it might be, but they sprung it sooner than we expected."  
  
"Everyone is all alright?"  
  
"All of us are fine, except Ranma."  
  
"What happened to Ranma." Julia snapped.  
  
"Daishi blasted him into a pool."  
  
"So he got cursed?"  
  
"Yes, the guide said it was Spring of Drowned Girl."  
  
"...get him back here, we'll have Theo look at Ranma when you get here. Can I talk to Ranma?"  
  
"No, he didn't take it very well and I had to sedate him."  
  
"Damn, blame that on his father then."  
  
"His father?"  
  
"Remember what he's said to you about girls being weak and useless, his father was always insulting him by calling him a girl. Calling him weak and such, that kind of thinking is what is probably going through his mind right now."  
  
"Can daddy help him?"  
  
"I don't know, we'll see when you get here. How far away are you?"  
  
"Baring problems it should be about four hours or so."  
  
"I'll be waiting."  
  
"Bye mom." Gina said and sighed when the screen went blank. She could tell that her mom was seriously pissed.  
  
"She sounded pretty mad." Cheetah said from the passenger seat.  
  
"No kidding, I'm hoping dad will be able to do something for Ranma, but you know he doesn't like to interfere unless has to. With mom nagging him he might do something though, we'll have to wait and see. I'm still angry about that soap, it would have kept him from getting that curse if we had remembered to have him use it. He was the most inexperienced of us all."  
  
"Charlotte was the last one to use it and what she did with it is a complete mystery, I never thought to ask."  
  
"Yeah I know. How about you Brianna?" Gina asked.  
  
Brianna was in the back seat with Ranma. "I should have been there to help him, I feel horrible about this."  
  
"What did you think of those readings I had earlier?"  
  
"His curse is unstable or something like that, I'm not sure just what is going on though. The readings look familiar, but I can't place them since I don't have access to my systems at the house."  
  
"What was familiar, I didn't see anything like that?"  
  
"It was in the energy readings on the area dealing with the curse itself."  
  
"I'm setting the computer to continue the scans on him while he is asleep, we can study them when we get back home."  
  
"Sure. What about Penny and Charlotte?"  
  
"She is going to stay here for a week and get things ready for the Generators we're going to install for the Amazons."  
  
"Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that in all the excitement. Did they say anything about Ranma's curse?"  
  
"Finding cures are very rare and usually dangerous, they only have a few instances of cures being found and they were all dependent on the one that wanted the cure in the first place. They wouldn't go into details, but I got the impression that they were hiding something from me, I asked Penny to look into it while she was there."  
  
"How's Penny getting home anyway?"  
  
"Hmm? Oh, she asked Ace to bring his helicopter in for her at the end of the week. All she has to do is meet him at the edge of the valley when she is ready to go. The Amazons said they would allow that since she was helping them out with the power plant were setting up."  
  
"Cool."  
  
**********  
  
Gina pulled into the driveway and hit a button on the console to open the underground garage. A small section of the driveway lifted up and she drove in and down the ramp to the first level below the house. It only took her a second to make her way over to the post mission area where she could park the car and get it prepped for the next outing they used it for. Britanny and Brianna were out of the car in a shot and had things prepared by the time she came to a full stop. They spent the next five minutes unloading the car, including Ranma, while Brianna set up the hydraulic lift and had the car run itself through a series of diagnostics.  
  
Once everything was ready they got Ranma down to second level where Gina had set up a small medical bay designed off of the technology used by Stripe's people at Elderado, she had adapted a good deal of it to her own levels though. The alien technology was probably better than anything the government could ever come up with anytime soon. It looked like something out of Star Trek as they lay Ranma out on a medical bed and it started to take readings on him almost immediately. Dr. Diggers and Julia came in a few minutes later to see what was going on. Gina motioned for them to head to another room while Genn monitored the equipment.  
  
"Can you stay around for few minutes Genn? I need to talked to my parents."  
  
"Sure, I'll call you if anything comes up. He's just sedated right?"  
  
"Give us a call if he starts to come around or something weird happens.  
  
"Sure thing."  
  
Gina, Britanny, and Brianna stepped into the small room they used for conferences and such. Julia was sitting in one of the chairs and did not look pleased as she glared at them. "Well?"  
  
"Like I told you, he got cursed by Daishi when they were fighting."  
  
"Why weren't you being careful?"  
  
"We were, but it was a trap and they were expecting us. The only reason that things didn't go worse was that Pee Wee was expecting just me and Cheetah. We overwhelmed him and his goons by having everyone with us, but not before Zelda drugged Charlotte and Daishi dragged Ranma into a fight."  
  
"I had thought that by allowing Ranma to go with you he could learn some things about team work and such. As well as giving him some experience with your adventures Gina, I thought he would be safe enough."  
  
"I'm sorry, we were caught off guard and at the worst possible moment."   
  
"Well I don't..."  
  
"Dear?" Dr. Diggers said.  
  
"What is it Theo?" Julia snapped, her eyes flashing with anger.  
  
"Jusenkyo is notorious for playing with chance encounters to curse it's victoms and from what Gina told us before she left, this Talon kid was using special suits to keep him and the others safe from the magic of Jusenkyo."  
  
"Yeah, so what?" Brianna asked as she watched the rooms scanners.  
  
"Well that place is almost alive and has taken steps to curse those that it wants to, why it does this is a mystery, but I'm willing to bet that Jusenkyo wanted to curse someone and it didn't care who."  
  
"But why Ranma, of all of us he was probably the worst one that could have been chose." Brianna said.  
  
"He was probably just in the wrong place at the right time to be affected. The rest of you were busy fighting each other while Ranma and Daishi were jumping from pole to pole above the springs. That's what Julia said when she explained this to me, Jusenkyo had time and opportunity."  
  
"He is my student Theo and I failed to read this situation correctly, I thought he would be safe enough."  
  
"I think that he would have been if it was anywhere else but there, Jusenkyo draws victims to it like bees to honey. The instant he was drawn over the springs it was to late to do anything but watch and pray he fell in something he could live with."  
  
Julia just glowered and looked away.  
  
"Can you cure Ranma, Daddy?" Gina asked.  
  
"I don't think so, the last time I studied Jusenkyo I found that it was made up of a very powerful form of chaotic nature magic. My Aura Magic doesn't work all that well with Nature Magic because they are so different from each other."  
  
"Then how about helping him? I thought about using the same process on him as me and Britanny used when we accidentally created Grave Digger, but the computers in my car told me that the process wouldn't work with this type of curse because it is a transformation type instead of the bad luck type that we encountered."  
  
Brianna looked embarrassed to be reminded of that event in her life, but decided to keep her mouth shut, she couldn't help how she was created.  
  
"Don't insult your sister Gina." Julia said as she hugged Brianna.  
  
"Huh, oh sorry Brianna, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."  
  
"Yeah sure, no problem."  
  
"Theo, will you see if you can help the boy?" Julia asked.  
  
"Sure, I was planning on it anyway, I don't like how he reacted to the curse at all, there could be mental problems, but it's too soon to see for sure."  
  
"Neither do I."  
  
Britanny, who hadn't had much to do and was bored, stayed in the room as the others filed out. She wasn't all that worried about Ranma, she had been watching him for the last couple of weeks and knew he was strong enough to pull thought this without much damage. Shape shifting was pretty normal as far as she was concerned and it would give him some pretty good advantages. She leaned back in her chair and it wasn't long before she fell asleep with her feet on the table and started to snore, she dreamt about Stripe and their honeymoon. She grinned in her sleep, lustfully.  
  
**********  
  
With a flare of light Dr. Theodore Diggers appeared a few inches above the ground and looked around as he landed. He was standing on a dark plain of some kind that stretched for as far as he could see behind him and to the sides. The other direction was another story entirely, he was standing at the edge of a cliff so high up that he was unable to see the bottom. Then he saw the boy he was here for and walked over to Ranma, who was sitting at the edge of the cliff and looking off into the distance. There was a look of immense pain on Ranma's face that Dr. Diggers knew would mean trouble, he steeled himself and walked forward.  
  
"Hello Ranma."  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"This place is not safe to be Ranma."  
  
"I don't really care all that much Doc."  
  
"Do you know where you are Ranma?"  
  
"No."  
  
"When you were cursed you retreated into your mind, just like you do when your suffering from the Neko-ken, this place is where you hide when you don't want to deal with things Ranma. Everything here is just portions of your mind given a physical form to represent something."  
  
"Hmmm...so what?"  
  
"I want you to come back and deal with this."  
  
"So your here to force me back?"   
  
"No, I can't do anything like that. This is your mind Ranma, you make the decisions so you must be the one to come back."  
  
"What if I don't want to?"  
  
"Your curse is something that can be lived with easily Ranma. What are you really running from?"  
  
"I'm not running from nothin!"  
  
"I don't believe you Ranma, your lying to yourself as well as me."  
  
"Humph!"  
  
Dr. Diggers sighed, he had a pretty good idea what Ranma was going through and thought he was over reacting quite a bit. Changing sex was pretty bad, but not as bad as taking on an animal form or something. He decided that telling the boy about a bit of his own past might help him get through to Ranma and drew on a bit of his magic. It was going to be more of an illusion than what it was the first time he did this, but Ranma didn't need to know that. "If your not running Ranma, then your scared of something."  
  
"You have no idea..."  
  
"What it's like to change sex Ranma? I'm a Wizard and on the Wizard's council on Jade, I have a pretty good idea what your going through. I know a lot about magic."  
  
"Then cure me."  
  
"I can't, the magic of your curse is elemental Magic. I specialize in Aura Magic and it can not effect your curse enough to cure you. It would be like using fog to get rid of water, I would only add to the problem instead of helping you. Elemental magic is one of the most powerful and uncontrollable magic's there is, it is almost completely random in the forms it takes."  
  
"That doesn't help me all that much Doc."  
  
"I know Ranma..."  
  
"Doc look over there." Ranma pointed.  
  
He turned and saw a female Ranma holding a Neko-Ranma, watching them from out of the shadows, about twenty or so feet away. "Those are parts of your soul Ranma."  
  
"They are not me, I've tried to talk to them while I was here, but they just ignore me for some reason. They are like shadows of me that can not even come near me."  
  
"That isn't true Ranma, you control everything that happens here Ranma, they are stuck there because you don't want to deal with them. Your own mind is holding them where they are, you don't want to even look at them. They are like this area we're in Ranma, dependent on what you think and do and act."  
  
"I don't understand."  
  
"Ranma your thinking of them as separate people, they are not, they are just parts of you that you're unconsciously trying to ignore. The more you do that, the more it will take for you to survive this and heal, accept the reality and move on."  
  
"I DON'T WANT TO ACCEPT THIS!! I DON'T WANT TO BE A FREAK!"  
  
"You're not a freak Ranma, here look at this." Dr. Diggers said.   
  
"What?"  
  
"When I was going for my second level of mastery I was forced to go through a trial of acceptance, quite a bit like what your going though right now. The only difference is that you had no choice in what happened to you, I did." Dr. Diggers held out his hand and it flared with power and Ranma watched as his body changed into a strikingly beautiful woman.  
  
"Huh?!"  
  
"I spent a year in this form Ranma, living a life of a woman, learning about how they thought, what they experienced, the good and the bad things of being the opposite gender. I went through everything they do in the course of a year and let me tell you, I hated every second of it. By the time the year was almost up I was not the nicest of people to be around and I was failing the test, but I eventually learned to live with it and move on with more important things. You have to do the same thing even if it goes against what you consider to be wrong, we can work this out."  
  
Ranma sighed and watched as his red headed form walked forward slowly and smiled nervously at him. She didn't say anything, just got closer and sat down to watch him as he sat there on the edge of the cliff again. "How do I accept this, I'm not even a man anymore? I feel wrong every time I change, like something is out of place or missing."  
  
"I went through that too Ranma, what your feeling is the difference between a man and a woman, very few men have experienced what me and you have. You can also change back and forth Ranma, that was an option that I didn't have at the time. You can deal with this change easily, your the one making it harder to do than what it really is."  
  
"Hmph! What about Neko?"  
  
"Like your girl form you need to accept him, I do know if you accept him it will take you one step closer to curing you of a the Neko Ken. Something that you have been wanting to do ever since I met you."  
  
"How do I go about doing that if I can't touch them?"  
  
"Neko over there is something your mind dreamed up to represent your fear, just like the girl represents your curse. All you need to do is accept them into your heart Ranma, this isn't something physical, it is emotional."  
  
"Oh that helps, now I'm really confused." Ranma muttered.  
  
Dr. Diggers thought about it for a second and scratched his beard. "Think of it this way Ranma, they are like your brother and sister, family, can you accept them like that?"  
  
"As family?" Ranma said as a bit of comprehension lit in his eyes and he turned from the darkness to look at his newest family.   
  
Neko Ranma and Female Ranma smiled as Ranma looked at them and blended into one being as he watched. Dr. Digger's eye brow shot up past his hair line in shock, he hadn't expected something like that. While Ranma was gaping at the cute cat girl that took Female Ranma's place, Dr. Diggers flared up his magic for a second and scanned Ranma more closely and found something that would either make or break this situation. He cursed silently and tried to control his anger. For all of Ranma's skill at fighting, his up bringing under that fool Genma had damaged Ranma in odd ways.   
  
At Ranma's young age he would be considered on the verge of adult hood or one outright, but he had no life experience. He didn't know how to deal with odd situations other than to fight them or run from them. He made these decisions almost instinctively, it just depended on which way he was pushed. Ranma also suppressed his emotions and did everything in his power to be masculine, taking great pride in winning and nearly crumbling if he ever lost. The only reason he had probably accepted training from his wife was because she was as good as she was, light-years ahead of the boy if she was to ever use her full strength against him.  
  
Dr. Diggers thought about what he had just seen and hoped Ranma was strong enough to survive physically, if not the boy was going to crumble into a thousand pieces. "Ranma?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"I can not cure your curse, but I may be able to modify it in a tiny way."  
  
"Modi...what?"  
  
"Change it."  
  
"How?"  
  
"The main Jusenkyo curse has you changing into a girl, if you want I may be able to make you like my daughter Brittany by joining you with the Neko-ken. Your mental forms have already joined up into that cat girl form, with a little tweek I could make you a were-cat of some kind. It would make you faster, stronger, and more powerful than you ever have been, but..."  
  
"But what?"  
  
"I can not override the curse itself, you would change into a female were-cat of some kind."  
  
Ranma shuddered. "No, I don't think I want to be a were-cat of some kind, not after everything else I've been through."  
  
"If it would help, think of it as a challenge of some kind. Your a man and strong enough to over come anything aren't you? This would be better than leavening things as they are right?"  
  
Ranma sighed and shook himself, why did his life have to be so difficult? "I'm being stupid aren't I?"  
  
"No Ranma, your trying to deal with a situation in the only way you know how. Your father never taught you how to deal with insane situations unless you were in mortal danger and the curse doesn't do that."  
  
"So how do I get out of this, just accept it, become a girl or a were-cat of some kind and just forget about it?"  
  
"No, you will not forget this, ever, but you can move on and just let it be another part of your life."  
  
"I don't know where to begin to do that."  
  
Dr. Diggers crossed his fingers and prayed this would work, Ranma could be told the truth later, when he would be ready for it and since he didn't want to be like his daughter he could at least do this to help him out. "Just go over to your cat girl aspect there and give her a hug and tell her your sorry and will accept her."  
  
"A h-hug?" Ranma nervously looked over at his other self and blushed, she was quite pretty even as a cat girl.  
  
"Yes, it is very important. That and the apology are required for your well being."  
  
"If I've gotta." Ranma mumbled and stood up to make his way over to the cat girl, she was making him nervous, but he grit his teeth and focused on his meditations to control the fear. The cat girl looked up him and smiled as he got closer and opened her arms, Ranma hugged her nervously and apologized. Dr. Diggers raised his hand and cast a quick spell just as Ranma appologised. With a flare of energy Ranma was engulfed in light for several seconds and the dark landscape around them vanished in an instant and turned into a field of tall grass and flowers. By the time the light vanished Ranma was himself again, but Dr. Diggers could feel a difference in Ranma that spoke volumes about the change that he had just gone through.  
  
"How do you feel Ranma?"  
  
"Really weird, is this what you meant by tweaking the curse?" Ranma said as he noticed that he didn't mind being female anymore, well not exactly, it was almost like it didn't matter to him. He searched deep inside himself and found that the his senses had increased, that he had slightly different perspective and that a curse that changed his sex could be lived with. Just like Dr. Diggers had said, now he just hoped his feelings on the subject were true. For now he would wait and see how things went, all the feelings that had been driving him nuts a few minutes ago were gone.   
  
"Yes in a way, for you to grow out of this and learn from it you have to accept yourself as you are and you can't do that by running away from the problem."  
  
"This isn't something I can't just punch and defeat you know, it messes with how I see and feel, everything around me. It is totally alien to me."  
  
"You will be fine Ranma, there are multiple girls in this house that can help you out, if you let them."  
  
"I never thought of that."  
  
"The biggest problem I had was dealing with the clothing."  
  
"Clothing?"  
  
"Yeah, wearing dresses and other things. They drove me batty because I was so used to wearing my Mage Suit."  
  
"You mean that skin tight thing your wearing right now?"  
  
"Yep, I've worn this for years. It's like a uniform in a way that lets everyone know what I am."  
  
"Oh." Ranma said and walked around the open field a little, even if it was just an aspect of his mind, he wondered what he was going to do. He had just merged with his other selves and could feel the differences in his mind, it was like a light had been switched on and shown him things that had been right in front of him. His female aspect allowed him to understand girls a lot better because of the difference in view point. As always his male aspect was dominant, but he kind of understood how girls saw things too.   
  
Once long ago he had spent a couple of weeks at a monastery deep in the mountains. He couldn't remember the exact reason he had been there, but he did remember the monks and what they had shown him. Most priests and monks that Ranma had encountered in his life preached that men were better than women and for the most part Ranma had silently agreed with them, but this place was different. They had allowed women into the place and given them equal rights, Ranma remembered his father complaining about it for hours on end.  
  
They had told him about the yen and yang differences in men and women, how men were like women and vice versa. Ranma had been surprise to find that most of the difference were merely cosmetic. Women had the ability to create life as well and that made them better in the eyes of the monks and no matter how much they wanted to they could not do that. All they could do was feel what the women did when they created a life. At the time Ranma had been pretty small, but that place had shown him things that were so far over his head that he had barely paid attention to the classes he attended.  
  
Those classes were now the most prominent in his mind, their lessons and information. Things he had set to the side and never bothered to remember until now. He was both male and female, something he did not want to be and just thinking about it made him angry enough to break something. On the other hand maybe there was something here he could put to use, something to make this thing worthwhile in the long run. They Guide had said there was no known cure and thousands of people had been cursed over the years.  
  
"Dr. Diggers, I should be fine for now, I want some time to think while I'm here. I won't go back to where I was though, I'm stronger than that."  
  
"I'll let you think things through then. Get some sleep after that, some real sleep so that you can have a fresh perspective on this in the morning."  
  
"Alright." Ranma said and watched as Dr. Diggers vanished.  
  
Ranma continued to walk through the grassy plane, he chose a random direction and moved through dozens of hills and valleys, each slightly different than the one before it. For the most part though he recalled the journey from the springs and what the girls had talked about while he was out of it, the strange spike in his energy that Brianna and Gina had mentioned. Their fears that he was going to snap and go crazy because of this change. Ranma was a little ashamed to admit that it had almost happened, but he didn't think he would have gone that rout. He had spent to many years trying to be strong and a curse was not going to stop him if he could help it.   
  
He did know that because of this, Daishi was going to pay for this if it was the last thing Ranma ever did. According to his memories the girls had said that he fell in a spring after being blasted, but they didn't know which one the jerk had fallen in afterwards. Ranma didn't care, he was going to make the bastard pay for doing this to him. A tiny part of Ranma's mind told him to accept part of the blame for being so stupid as to let the fight head out over the springs in the first place, but he ignored that as best he could. It was Daishi's fault as far as Ranma was concerned, he would worry about his own part in it after that jerk was taken care of.  
  
Opening his eyes and looking up, Ranma found himself at the top of a hill that lead down into a valley full of darkness. He wondered where he was for a second and recalled that Dr. Diggers had mentioned that this place was just parts of his mind given form. What was in his mind that would cause this darkness, he could see things moving below him, but it was impossible to make them out. He looked a little closer and found that the darkness was receding a little and he gasped in shock. It sent him tumbling back several steps before he landed on his butt and rolled down the other side of the hill.  
  
He rolled to his feet just as they rounded the hill, hundreds of tiny one foot tall Neko-Ranma's meowing playfully. The tails and ears were the worst though and he curled into a ball, they reminded him all to much of the Pit and the Pain he had suffered while there. Then as they crawled all over him, touching him, clawing him, nibbling at his toes, something seemed to snap. Ranma's eyes snapped open and he sat up, not in shock or fear, but in wonder. All around him for hundreds of feet were little Neko-Ranma's, some female and some male, all of them staring at him with pure love and trust.  
  
"Oh boy..." He mumbled as they all meowed at once and charged him.  
  
Ranma wasn't six years old anymore and he had an idea what was going on too, he lashed out and at the first tiny Neko-Ranma and to his surprise it hissed and vanished in a puff of smoke. Then Ranma didn't have time to think as he spent the next couple of minutes moving at his fastest speed to keep the little monster from touching him. What he didn't notice was that the smoke from each little Neko-Ranma was flowing away and forming itself into a larger form.  
  
Those Neko-Ranma's that didn't attack him from the front did so by using their Ki claws. The tiny arcs of energy would slam into him now and then and open up a cut here or a nasty scratch there, they weren't strong enough to so more than that, but as the little Neko-Ranma's were dwindled down they became stronger and stronger until one of them him him in the upper thigh from the side and Ranma screamed in pain. The thing had opened him up like a sword would have. Blood ran down his leg as he stared to blast the things with his Ki, this finally finished them off and gave him a few minutes peace.  
  
Then he saw the smoke about fifty yards away as it formed into a rather large tiger striped tiger. It was larger than a three story house and it was glaring at him with eyes of glowing energy that Ranma could feel measuring him up in some way. It was quite possibly the most frightening thing Ranma had ever seen and he started to shake all over. The little Neko-Ranma's hadn't been true cats, just small him shaped humans with tails and ears. This was a completely different story, this was a giant man eating monster cat that was worse than every demon in hell.  
  
It ROARED loud and long and it ECHOED across the valleys, bouncing back and forth until Ranma's shaking increased to pure terror. Then it pounced, it's three story bulk launching into the air and headed right for him. Ranma screamed and tried to run away, but his feet wouldn't move, a giant paw slapped him with enough force to send him flying across the valley. Ranma hit the side of a hill and had the air knocked out of his lungs, still he tried to scramble away to safety but the Cat ran over and batted him again, like it was playing with a mouse.  
  
Fear warred in Ranma's mind, one part was screaming for him to run away, another wanted him to fight back for once, and yet another part wondered why he hadn't degenerated into the Neko-Ken yet. Ranma struggled as he flew through the air and was just able to get his air back just as he hit, but this time he had enough of a mind left to roll with the landing and came up on his feet. The Cat was right on top of him and he screamed as his body reacted instinctively to the attacking monster. He threw out a single attack, something unexpected, something small.  
  
Ranma kicked the monster in the throat as it descended on him, it was charged with all his power and took every ounce of courage he had to do it. He used everything he had available for a split second attack, it took him by complete surprise when the Cat yowled in pain and exploded. The world went red around him and instead of pain, Ranma found himself feeling safe and content for some reason. Things he had rarely ever felt in all the years on the road with the old man. It remind him of the times when he was with his mom, before the trip. Then just before he lost consciousness Ranma heard a voice with a strange quality to it.  
  
"It took you ten years to finish the training, but you did it little one, so I grant you what you have always wanted."  
  
Ranma could feel a pair of arms holding him as he blacked out...  
  
**********  
  
Alarms were going off all over the infirmary as Ranma's aura flared up and nearly disintegrated the medical bed he was on. His body filled out and gained a bit of muscle mass, a couple of inches, and something those watching couldn't put their fingers on. It was just something that they could feel in the air and it put them all on edge. Julia could tell that it had to do with the boy's aura, but she wasn't worried about that since, if he could do this while being trapped in his own mind, he was in no danger of dieing.  
  
She was worried about something else, Ranma couldn't do things like normal people, oh no, he had to do it in a way that affected everyone around him. His first burst of Ki had nearly blown the protective walls all around Ranma to splinters and shattered them so that it was hard enough to see what was going on. Walls of energy had formed around Ranma and contained the energy release, but it looked like they were really straining to do so. Gina was nearby on the computer, she had mentioned that the force fields around Ranma had nearly been overwhelmed by the blast. She was amazed at the amount of power it would take to something like that to one of her devices.  
  
Julia wasn't surprised, she had been there when they were tested by Brianna and her thirty millimeter Vulcan Cannon and a barrage of Peebo's, all of which failed to get through the force field. It hadn't even come close to falling, but Ranma's blast had come close enough to make it ripple into the visible spectrum. The effect had reminded her of the force fields that Theo tossed up now and then to protect them. Julia winced as another burst of power filled the area and obliterated what was left of the protective walls, but sighed in relief when the field held once again.  
  
"That blast was 20% stronger than the one before it!" Gina yelled to Brianna.  
  
Brianna was at another terminal, helping Gina control the spread of damage around Ranma. She was a bit surprised that Ranma could get to the second level of protection. First came the five inch thick plexy glass walls that were designed to bend with the force of an attack with out breaking. Then came the force field that could withstand twenty times as much punishment as the walls and Ranma was pushing them to the limt. After that came the third and final form of protection and Brianna was kind of hopeful that Ranma would break through the force field, they had never had a chance to test out the thing.  
  
"Keep an eye on the pressure wave, Ranma's energy is flaring out of control. Whatever is happening to him is right at the point of blowing his body to pieces. I don't know how much more of this he can handle." Brianna said.  
  
It was a Techno Magic device, incorporating technology and magic to produce certain results. In this case Ranma would be placed in a suspended animation crystal strong enough to survive a multi ton nuclear warhead explosion. Brianna thought it would be more than enough to hold Ranma if it came down to that. Gina had mentioned on numerous occasions that the crystal worked great against outside forces, she just wondered if it worked as well from the inside. It was one of the few areas that they couldn't really test and with the way Ranma was going, she had a feeling that their theory would be tested soon.  
  
Julia turned to her husband. "Just what the hell did you do while you were in his head?"  
  
Theodore Diggers shrugged and looked at Ranma. "I talked to him and kept him from falling deeper into his depression. His personality was also fractured due to the Neko Ken training he's suffering from, the dip in that spring didn't help things very much and he has been spending his time trying to master those meditation techniques that affect his mind."  
  
"The meditation techniques, are they responsible for this?" Julia asked, she couldn't think of a reason why.  
  
"Only partly, they have been breaking down the barriers in Ranma's mind so that he could get over the Neko Ken. With those barriers weakened, and with his guard was relaxed, he wasn't as strong mentally as he had been before he started his training. When he landed in the spring and found out he was now female some of those barriers shattered. That's why he acted the way he did, it was like a blow to his soul.  
  
"So what else did you do to him?"  
  
"I cast a spell to bring his fractured personality under control, since it was his mind he controlled the whole thing, but I didn't tell him that. At least not out right, I hinted at it and walked him through some things and he reabsorbed the aspects of his personality that had broken off. Since he was still in the denial stage he weathered it pretty well, I left when he wanted some time to think some things through. It was only a few minutes after I left that these surges started, I can only assume that he did something he shouldn't have."  
  
"No kidding." Julia said sarcastically, Ranma was a student and she did not want him to die because of something like this. She was responsible for him.  
  
"Don't worry about it, lets just try and help him while we can. He has to pull through this on his own, I'll help out when I have a better idea of what is going on."  
  
"Alright."  
  
"Guys, Ranma's energy levels is dropping almost as fast as it went up. He should be back to normal in a few minutes, the force field held." Gina announced.  
  
"Confirmed!" Brianna said happily.   
  
They all watched as the glow around Ranma grew smaller and smaller until it flickered like fire and finally vanished. The force field stayed up for several seconds incase something happened, then vanished as well. Gina rushed into the room and hit the emergency override on her computer and booted up the backups that Ranma hadn't destroyed. They scanned Ranma and with more detailed and powerful equipment than what Gina had available. The infirmary was one of the areas of the house that Gina had her most powerful computers.  
  
"How is he Gina?" Brianna asked.  
  
Gina was typing away like mad as she finished her first scan of Ranma. "He's slipped into a deep sleep. Whatever happened drained him of almost all of his energy, his Ki levels are nearly nonexistent but slowly rising."  
  
"Hey, what happened to Genn?" Britanny asked. She had been keeping an eye out on everything while Gina and Brianna worked. "Wasn't he supposed to be watching Ranma?"  
  
"I sent him out to get us some food, he should be back in an hour or so." Brianna said.  
  
"Oh, I was worried about him."  
  
"Alright everyone, it looks like Ranma is asleep so lets let him get his rest and we'll deal with this mess when he wakes up." Gina said as the infirmary walls were automatically replacing themselves. She had designed her home to fix itself as quickly as it could through the use of transporter devices modeled after her Light Gate technology. By this time tomorrow she knew that everything would be back to normal.   
  
**********  
  
Ranma came awake with a start and lay there for several seconds trying to figure out what was wrong. There was a bit of light streaming in from his window and highlighting one wall and as far as he could tell everything looked to be fine. He sat up and put his feet on the floor, he had yet to get used to the western style beds the Digger's used. They were made for making people lazy and encouraged him to sleep all the time. He sat there for several minutes listening to the sounds from out side, kids playing and cars driving by.   
  
Standing up he noticed that he was in his boxers and wondered how that had happened. The last thing he remembered clearly was being Gina's car as they came back from....Jusenkyo. His eyes went wide as he remembered the curse, he nearly panicked as images flowed through his mind. Had that been real?! If so did he really turn into a short and busy red headed girl? Ranma had to know, he dashed out of his room and past a surprised Genn and into the kitchen. He grabbed a glass of water and poured it over his head and nearly fainted.  
  
He had TITS, they were huge and took up most of the space on his chest. He felt weaker, shorter, and less than a man when he found something else missing. Ranma shuddered and forced himself to relax, he could deal with this. He carefully pulled reached over and got some hot water and poured it over his head and watched the change a second time. His body shifted and he felt his strength and power return, watched as his muscles grew back and his balance went back to normal. He sighed in relief when he found that everything was back to normal.  
  
"Um...Ranma..."  
  
Ranma's head whipped around and he noticed Gina sitting at the table drinking some water and working on a laptop. She was flushed and looked a little red around the ears. "What?"  
  
"I do appreciate the show and all, but could you please pull your boxers up?" She said mildly and pointed behind him. "Your flashing the neighborhood kids."  
  
Ranma looked confused and glanced behind him, right out into the street where some kids were trying to play touch foot ball. Several of the mothers on the sidelines had fainted while the guys were looking for a reason to kill him. Ranma being Ranma had been trained by his father to act a certain way in all situations. "Boxers, what about them?"  
  
Gina gave him a leer and stared right at his waist. "Their around your ankles Ranma."  
  
"Oh..." Ranma squeaked. He had been trained, that is not to say the training had took. He blurred and vanished from the spot faster than Gina could blink, he reappeared a few seconds later fully dressed and blushing a solid red.   
  
"Thanks for the show handsome, your quite a bit more developed for your age than I had thought. Its so hard to tell when your unconscious and all."  
  
"S-sorry a-about that, It won't happen again." Ranma mumbled.  
  
Gina smiled and her glasses fogged up. "Don't stop on my account, I always enjoy a good floor show."  
  
If it would have been possible Ranma would have turned even more red, instead he started to rub his toe on the floor in little patterns. Gina just giggled and went back to her computer work, she liked Ranma, but he was much to young for her. He would be quite a man in the next few years, but for now she knew that she didn't want him. If Ryan or Seance had done something like that she would have been all over them before they left the room, but Ranma didn't inspire that side of her. He was fun to tease though and, as she tapped a button on the computer, she had gotten the whole thing down on tape to watch later. It would be a good addition to her 'special' collection though.  
  
"I've been doing some research on your curse Ranma."  
  
His head came up and looked relieved to have a way out of the awkward situations. "You have?"  
  
"Yep, your quite lucky in my opinion."  
  
Ranma frowned, what in the world could be worse than being a girl? "Why?"  
  
"You stay human, there are only five springs like that at Jusenkyo according to the files I've accessed on the site. Girl, man, pervert, Amazon, and drunk, everything else is an animal or monster of some kind. You could have ended up as a dog or something worse. There are rabbits, insects, bears, all kinds of things that would have infinitely worse than just changing sex."  
  
Ranma grunted. "I would have rather become a dog or bear than this."  
  
"You have a weird idea of what it is to be a girl Ranma, I think your wrong too. I would rather change into a man than become something like a panda or worse."  
  
"If it had been anything other than a girl Gina, I could live with it with ease, even an animal curse. I change into a girl with water, I lose all my strength, my balance is off, I'm shorter, I have TITS for gods sake! I'm a man, I have to be, or all my training and the pain has been for nothing!"  
  
"I don't understand Ranma, what does being a man have to do with anything? Do you realize that you have the ability to understand something that no man has ever had the chance to experience? Men have been trying to understand women for centuries now, you have a chance to do just this. You can learn things about being a woman that no man could ever understand, hour monthly cycles, how we think, how that body works differently than your male one. The examples are endless Ranma."  
  
"Monthly cycle?" Ranma gasped out and paled as he realized just what that was, those magazines had been pretty informative on a great deal of things.  
  
"Yeah, but don't worry about those we can deal with that when the time comes." Gina said obliviously. "I wanted to talk to you about something else anyway."  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"You've been out of it for nearly three days now, during that time I've had time to do some pretty extensive scans on both of your forms. Something other than getting the curse happened to you when you were blasted into that pool Ranma."  
  
"What, there's more bad news?" Ranma sighed, when it rained it poured.  
  
"I don't know if this is good new or bad news Ranma, I guess that is for you to decide on. Scans have revealed that your body structure has changed since you were in the healing tank. It's now more durable than anything I have ever seen, your strength seems to have increased as well as your mass..."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Gina sighed. "That means your heavier than you were, this is true for both forms. There is also some odd energy readings that I haven't been able to figure out just yet, but I think it has something to do with the curse magic itself."  
  
"Don't forget to mention that his aura has changed as well." Julia said as she stepped into the kitchen.  
  
"Hi mom. What do you mean, his aura?"  
  
"All living things have auras Gina, Ranma's aura has changed from what it was a week ago."  
  
"How much?" Ranma asked.  
  
"It's tripped in sized and intensity if I'm any judge and I've worked with Ki for some time now. Your aura used to barely move around except when you were in combat or injured, then it would flare up until things calmed down. Now it looks like your standing in the middle of a bonfire and your not even fighting or anything, I may have to teach you some special techniques I know just so you don't accidentally spontaneously combust on me."  
  
"Hey, I have more control than that!" Ranma yelled.  
  
"Enough to not kill yourself you mean, you are no where near a Ki adept yet Ranma, but there are teachers out there that can teach you what you need to know."  
  
"I doubt that, me and pop have traveled all over Japan and China looking for people to teach us things, we have never come across someone like that."   
  
"They exist, but are usually pretty picky about just who they train. Plus I never said anything about Japan or China, I was thinking about sending you to Jade to learn under several of the teachers there."  
  
"Jade? Where is this place?" Ranma said in surprise, one of his few talents outside of martial arts was geography since he had walked over most of the planet on foot. "I know you guys have mentioned this place before, but I have no idea what it is."  
  
"You do remember when you were at Shangri-la don't you?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
"That place is located just a step outside of normal time, that is what makes it so hard to reach. Jade is an entire world like that, a completely different dimension."  
  
Ranma looked confused as he tried to figure that out, then blinked. "By different dimension, do you mean like some of those parallel worlds and things I've seen in Anime films?"  
  
This time Julia blinked, she had never encountered an Anime film on Jade and she always stayed in America to be with her family. "Anime films?"  
  
"That's a good example Ranma, going to Jade would be like visiting the Slayers world." Gina said.  
  
"So it's all sword and sorcery stuff?"  
  
"Yeah, that is a perfect way to describe Jade." Gina said and patted Ranma on the shoulder. He was pretty smart, just woefully uneducated, she had plans to take care of that if she had the time.  
  
"How could a world like that be of help to me?"  
  
"What do you mean Ranma?" Julia asked.  
  
Open mouth, insert foot to ankle and chew vigorously. "Who can learn anything from bad sword fighters and cheesy wizards?" Ranma said in a confused tone of voice.  
  
"WHAT WAS THAT, BOY?" Said a voice from behind Ranma that sounded like a mix between ancient vocal cords and coffins slamming shut.  
  
Ranma turned around and saw a demon with a flaming skull smoking a pipe glaring down at him. "AGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Ranma jumped to the ceiling and quickly made his way out of the room before anyone could say anything otherwise.  
  
"THAT WAS UNEXPECTED." The demon said mildly enough to make Gina's hair stand on end, and she was used to things like this too.  
  
"Cut it out Theo, you scared the poor boy half to death."  
  
"SERVES HIM RIGHT FOR INSULTING MAGIC LIKE THAT, I SWEAR IN MY DAY..."  
  
"Theodore!!" Julia yelled, grabbed the flaming skulls ear and dragged him out of the room.  
  
"BUT HONEY, HE..."  
  
Gina just blinked, finished off her water and remembered that she had to tell Ranma about his magical attraction to water now too. She had forgotten about it in all the confusion. A few seconds work and she had set up a program in her computer to remind her of it later. A quick look out the window also reminded her of the little show Ranma had pu on for her, the women were still laid out on the ground with their husbands fanning them. 'You would think that living across the street from us they would be used to the odd thing like this happening. After all her sisters were always sunbathing in the nude during the summer.' Gina thought.  
  
**********  
  
Ace's access to equipment was beyond anything Gina had ever seen, he could get his hands on anything that flew. He had helicopters, Osprey, even WW1 bi-planes at the small air strip made up his home when he wasn't flying. He would go anywhere in the world if the price was right and had a reputation for being the best there was when it came to things that could fly. His skills made him one of the best in the world and he knew it. That was why he was using a Chinook helicopter.   
  
Where he got the thing is a complete mystery, he wouldn't say, but Gina had a feeling that he had 'appropriated' the thing from someone. Jet jockeys were always trying to out fly him or kill him every now and then, they had been caught in a few of the fights. Ace's skills were without peer, unfortunately flying seemed to be his only passion. Penny had been trying to land him for years and had only been able to keep him down on the ground for a few days at most before he was back in the air again. Luckily Penny was still with the Amazons, that was why Gina, Cheetah, Brianna, and Ranma were here, to take the needed equipment to her and get the hydroelectric plant going for the Amazons.  
  
Gina had loaded all the parts and equipment onto a large rented truck and spent the last week getting things ready while Ranma recovered from the curse and other things. Keeping him in the house and away from training had been a complete headache, it was he ever did when he was bored. He ate breakfast and went to train until lunch, then back out train until dinner. Julia had forbidden this while he was recovering and it had made the last few days very stressful. Ranma was not a happy camper when he could not train and forcing him to stay in his room watching TV or reading books had taken some pretty serious threats and bribes.  
  
"What in the hell is that thing?" Gina asked. She had seen the things before, but she couldn't remember what it was called.  
  
"That is a Boeing CH47 Chinook, it is a multipurpose helicopter." Ace said as the prepped it for a long flight.  
"It looks like a giant hot dog with rotors at each end." Cheetah commented with a smirk.  
Ace frowned and glowered at the smirking werecheetah. "Humph!! I'll have you know that the CH-47 is a twin-engine, tandem rotor helicopter designed for transportation of cargo, troops, and weapons. The aircraft fuselage is approximately 50 feet long. With a 60-foot rotor span, on each rotor system, the effective length of a CH-47 (with blades turning) is approximately 100 feet from the most forward point of the forward rotor to the most rearward point on the aft rotor. Maximum airspeed is 170 knots with a normal cruise speed of 150 knots." It looked like Ace was about to continue the speech, he had stars in his eyes.  
"Whoa there Ace, I believe you, there's no need to go overboard!" Gina said hurriedly, though Brianna looked like she might have been interested. At least she had been fromt he moment Ace mentioned weapons and was giving the odd looking thing a once over for future potential. For some reason that bothered Gina even more, the last time Brianna had gotten that look their lay-z-boy chair had vanished for a week. When it reappeared it was a very comfortable floating weapons platform that could blow up a whole platoon of tanks. The test firing had brought the fire department and police running from all over town.  
"Fine Gina, don't dis the equipment. Do you have everything you need on the truck?"  
"Yes, we can unload it and get the helicopter loaded..."  
"It would be easier to just prep the whole truck than unload it here and then drop everything there."  
"It's rented, I don't think the rental company would be very happy if I took the thing out of the country."  
"Just use that Light Gate thingy of yours to send it back here when your done with it."  
"I don't trust that thing anymore, it messes up more and more lately."  
"Oh Gina it works fine for equipment, it's just that living mass confuses it right now. I'm still trying figure out where that glitch came from." Brianna said, she was sweating nervously.  
"Fine, but how are we going to get there?"  
"Ace can still take us, there is some equipment in the second truck that I don't trust to Light Gate so you can take us over with that stuff." Brianna said.  
Ranma and Cheetah stood in the background looking bored as they leaned against the truck. "Did you follow any of that?" Ranma asked.  
"Nope." Cheetah said. "I'm the muscle and protection, this kind of stuff bores me to death."  
"I know what you mean, thought since were heading back to the valley where Jusenkyo maybe there is someone there that could help out with my curse."  
"Don't get your hopes up, Gina said that Penny already asked and the Amazons said there was no way."  
Ranma grunted just as Ryan Talbot drove up beside the other transport and hopped out of the truck. He looked around and spotted Gina and Brianna talking to Ace and sauntered over with a smirk on his face. Ranma wasn't sure why, but the instant he had met the guy he had taken an instant dislike to him. His effect on Gina had been pretty obvious though, the girl had him wrapped around her finger. At least that was what Ranma thought, he had read it in one of those nasty romance novels that he had been forced to read while recovering. If there was anything more evil in the world than those things, he shuddered at the thought. He remembered Genn handing one to him on the second day of his 'imprisonment'.  
"Here Ranma broaden your horizons, there is more to life than martial arts and training you know."  
The things were horrible and evil, once he started he had found himself drawn into the thing and hadn't been able to put it down until he finished it. It had given him a stomach ache just reading it, but he just had to know what was going to happen next and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't fight it. Ranma had never heard of soap operas, but if he had, he would have known what happened to him. He had sworn never to touch the things again, and yet there was this new craving deep inside him to go and get the next one in the series. He figured it must be demonic possession or something and tried to ignore the feeling, either that or it had given him gas.   
"Hey Gina!" Ryan yelled and hugged the girl.  
"Hi Ryan, how as the trip?"  
"Slow, that equipment of yours must be pretty sensitive to force me to keep the truck under 35, hopefully nothing was damaged."  
"I hope so too, it took two days to get that thing packed up right and it seems it was for nothing."  
"For nothing?"  
"Yeah, Ace here is going to just air lift the entire truck to where we need it. I packed everything up to keep it from breaking when we had to move it around several times."  
Ryan looks over at the helicopter. "That's an 'air crane' right?"  
"Chin hook, the air crane is the one that has the main body removed and big square hole in the middle."  
"Oh yeah, I saw one of those the other day."  
Gina rolled her eyes, boys and their toys were a minor irritant to her, but at least they were cute. "Brianna lets..."  
"No, no, no!" Brianna yelled and waved her arms. "The perfect place to mount the chain guns would be along the under belly and inside the main body."  
"What! No way, the guns would be perfect with them mounted right below the cockpit that way it would be easier to fire them where you wanted them to." Ace said.  
"Oh please!" Brianna said.  
"Hey now you two..." Ryan tried.  
Gina just pinched the bridge of her nose and hook her head, it was going to a long day and it had just started. She walked over to the first truck and pulled a small briefcase out of the back and opened it to reveal a satellite phone. She tapped a button and the small screen in the corner lit up, a ringing sound was heard several times before the screen flickered and a close up of an eye was seen.  
"Aghhhhhhhh!!" Gina cried and fell back on her butt.  
"Charlotte! I've already told you several time that you don't need to be so close to the screen for everyone to see you." Penny was heard to say on the other end.  
"But...it's so small, how can it do that?" Charlotte whined.  
"It just does, okay, now let me talk to Gina. Thank you." Penny said.  
"How are things going there Penny?"  
"Pretty good, the locals are a bit weird, but we managed to get some ground rules sorted out."  
"Will there be any problems with us flying the equipment right in?"  
"There shouldn't be, but Charlotte has caused quite a stir here and the locals are a but nervous about her."  
"Why?"  
"She looks like the one of the local tribes, the Phoenix Mountain Kingdom tribe to be exact, right down to the wings."  
"I've heard of them, but never seen them before. How close is the resemblance?"  
"Almost perfect, about the biggest difference is that the Phoenix people are the most arrogant and short sighted people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting."  
"Oh joy, I hope we don't meet up with them then."  
"I can't help you there. They got wind of what the Amazons were doing and came in for a look, nearly set off a small war."  
"A small war? If the conditions are that bad we won't be able to set up the hydro plant for them."  
"We might be able to work something else out, the Phoenix don't trust humans, they've nearly been hunted to extinction over the years. There are only about 2000 of them left and they have turned human hatred into a religion. On the other hand they need some things we can provide and might be willing to trade for it if things work out."  
"Let's work on it and see what we can come up with, The Foundation would be happy to finally have some understanding of that region. They've been hounding me for days now trying to get me to submit my findings."  
"Heh, even I've heard from them all the way out here. They can wait, we can get everything set up when we get back."  
"Agreed, now I need the coordinates for where you are, I'm going to light gate you the big and bulky stuff and some other equipment to help you get started. Ace is going to fly in the more sensitive stuff and the rest of the equipment."  
"Right." Penny said and sent them through the satellite phone's mini computer.  
"Got them, let me get some stuff set up and I'll have the stuff to you in ten minutes."  
"I gotcha." Penny said and cut the connection.  
"Gina, are you ready to get things set up and ready?" Ace calls over.  
"Sure, are those cables still in the same place as last time?"  
"Yeah, I'll go and get them since were taking the whole truck with us."  
"Your going to fly that truck over the ocean and into China?" Ryan gasped.  
"Yep, that chopper is designed for such long range hauling. I had to sacrifice over half of the passenger compartment for added equipment and fuel tanks, but it was worth it. I can stay in the air ten times longer than a normal chopper, I also had to give up a bit of the max weight I can carry, but it was worth it."  
"Man I still don't see how this thing can make a flight like that." Ryan said.  
Ace just grinned. "Well, I also rebuilt the entire thing from the ground up and made hundreds of little changes to get what I wanted."  
"That's so cool man."  
"I know."  
"Boys." Gina says and rolls her eyes.  
  
**********  
  
Ace followed along the edge of the river for several miles outside the Amazon village until he spotted the cleared away forest and several acres of land with a small building straddling a swift running water fall. There were a number of robots moving around on both ends of the stream setting up a divergence so that they could finish setting up the last of the structure and get ready to install the hydro electric plant. He called back to Gina and had her come up to the cockpit.  
  
"Gina, are those your Hurt Bots working down there?"  
  
"Yep, I programmed them to take care of a lot of the details we needed done to get the place set up. We are here a lot earlier than I expected, by about thirty six hours or so, they should have everything ready within about twenty hours. That should give us enough time to learn what is going on and get some rest, this has been a tiring flight."  
  
"I agree with that girl, I'm going to set your stuff down next to that building right there that Penny is standing by."  
  
"That'll be perfect, the bots can get things where they need to go."  
  
"Gotcha." Ace said and swung the Chinhook around and maneuvered his cargo into place and set the truck down and waited for Penny to cut the cables that were connected to the chopper. Then moved over and landed in part of the out of way field so that they wouldn't cause to much trouble.   
  
"Thanks Ace, this shouldn't take to much time." Gina said and went back to grab her pack and let everyone they could get off. She needn't have worried, they were all off by the time she got there and were helping Penny off load that equipment that was in the small storage section on the Chinhook itself.  
  
"All of you take one of those packages and take them over to the building and put all of them down in a corner, we'll get to all of it eventually." Penny yelled.  
  
After getting everything off loaded Ace lifted off and flew out of the valley, he needed to get the Chinhook refueled and take care of some jobs while he was in the area. Gina and Penny waved goodbye as he flew off and were met by one of the tribal Elders of the Amazons. Gina recognized her as the one she had met when they were here before, Elder Cologne. "Hello Elder, how is everything going?"  
  
Cologne laughed. "I hadn't expected things to be done this fast."  
  
"Under normal circumstances this would have taken months, but with my bots we should be done in under a week."  
  
"That soon?"  
  
"After that the only thing left will be the fine tuning and since most of the developing for this was done on a computer is should be pretty simple."  
  
"Very good child, very good. I'll be back a little later to see how things are going, I also want to talk about those metal men of yours. I'm going to leave a number of the girls here to keep an eye on things while you work."  
  
"Sure...hey, do we have to worry about those rules of yours?" Gina said as Cologne started to hop off.  
  
She stopped and turned around. "No, as I told Miss. Penny here, while you are doing this for us we will make sure most of the rules do not apply. Just don't push your luck or cause trouble." Cologne said and continued on her way.  
  
"Right, and thanks I was a bit worried." Gina said as she turned back to Penny. "So how are things really going?"  
  
"Pretty good actually, I wasn't expecting the bots until you arrived. They got right to work and most of this area cleared away within hours. Since they don't need sleep I think we can start getting things set up by tomorrow morning."  
  
"Jinkies, this place is ready made for this kind of thing isn't it? I'll bring in another twenty units and have things ready to go within a few days. That will give us enough time to fix any bugs that will show up and see if there is anything else that needs to be done."  
  
"Gina, what are us non techies supposed to do while you are working on this stuff?" Cheetah asked as she ran up.  
  
"Ranma is here to talk to some of the Amazons, you and Ryan can lend a hand and start getting things unpacked. This place is going to be up and running by the end of the week and the faster things are ready, the faster we will be done."  
  
"Oh joy, unpacking equipment is so high on my list of things to do today." Cheetah says an wanders off.  
  
"Come on Gina, I thought were going to get some quality time together on this trip." Ryan says as he grabs Gina in a hug from behind.  
  
"Cut it out Ryan, we can play later, right now I have to get this project finished. The Amazons provided us with a lot of information when we needed it and I need to repay them."  
  
"You can make few minutes can't you?" Ryan tried again and kissed Gina's neck and jaw.   
  
Ryan didn't know what hit him as he was suddenly airborne and landed face first in the side of a rock by the river. He groaned and shook his head to clear it as he sat up and looked back at Gina, who was smirking at him. Then a shadow blocked the sunlight from his eyes and he looked up into the eyes of a Hurt Bot and Cheetah, both of them did not look pleased. "Um...hi?"  
  
"The mistress does not want to be bothered right now, she says you can play later so back off or I'll snap your spin in half." Said the Hurt Bot.  
  
"Sis is all business right now Ryan, so back off until she is ready to do something or you'll get more of this." Cheetah said. "You know getting in the way of her work is nearly impossible and this project way up on the list. Penny is the same way so back off until later tonight and Gina might be in a more receptive mood."  
  
"Fine." Ryan said as he stood up to dust off his pants. "Since when can she flip someone like that?"  
  
"She's a geek, she didn't flip you, she activated her force field in a burst and sent you flying off her. Right into this nice soft rock that broke your fall lover boy." Cheetah said with a snicker as she left.  
  
The Hurt Bot glared for a second before moving off.  
  
"Oh...great." Ryan muttered and wandered off looking for something to do. Then he saw something that he hadn't expected, a large group of girls over by the helicopter. He recognized them as some of the Amazon girls that had been left behind to guard the area while Gina and Penny worked.   
  
He wandered over to see what all the fuss was about and noticed the kid going through some pretty complex kata routines. His special ability of reflexive memory make such things almost useless for him, but doing them occasionally did improve his reaction time when he really needed it. Ranma was going through one of the advanced kata of Karate mixed with something he didn't recognize, but Ryan was instantly able to figure out it's use. Just recently he had figured out how Daishi did his Ki blasts and Ranma was using his Ki to increase the power and speed of his kata.  
  
This happened to be the one area that Ryan couldn't improve upon by just watching, he could memorize and copy any move, but sense Ki was internal there was nothing to see. He had to train in its use just like anyone else would, it also galled him that the kid was better at the stuff than he was. He watched Ranma some more, then gasped along with the women as he took to the air to practice his aerial maneuvers. To Ryan they were almost to fast to see and Ranma's skill at them made for a flawless execution, Ryan's mind cataloged and incorporated Anything Goes and in an instant had several of the most powerful moves to the style down. He liked to show off his skills too and with all these girls here he would have a good audience.  
  
"Is that all you can do? Jump in the air and punch a few times?" Ryan said in a condescending voice." He grinned at the silence that swept through the girls and made Ranma stop. He flinched a little as he saw all the girls watching him before glaring at Ryan.  
  
"That sounds like a challenge to me."  
  
"It was, anything you can do, I can do better." Ryan said with a smirk.  
  
"Oh really?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Then bring it on pretty boy." Ranma said with a matching smirk and the girls began to whisper among themselves.  
  
Both boys ran at each other and exploded into a frenzied fight that had them bouncing all over the field. The girls cheered them on and attracted more people into the gathering crowd of on lookers. Ranma was instantly impressed with Ryan's skill as they fought, he recognized things about his style that hinted at dozens of different schools of martial arts. Like Anything Goes, his style had incorporated moves from hundreds of different sources, but there was something odd about it that Ranma couldn't put his finger on. There was something there that he felt he should have recognized almost instantly, something subtle. It wasn't anything he could put into words, just a feeling he had.  
  
Ryan was in heaven, he loved taking on fighters that used a school he didn't know. He was adding new moves and actions into his own style with every jump and kick they pulled off. To his surprise he could see that Ranma was doing the same thing, adapting and adjusting to the fight to better defeat his opponent. Through out the fight they had only tagged each other a few times and it was getting more and more intense by the moment. Ryan had heard that Daishi had beaten Ranma on two different occasions now so he delved into the maneuvers that he had seen the ninja use.  
  
The change in style didn't phase Ranma all that much, but he was surprised that this guy knew Daishi's fighting style. He didn't come off as being a ninja, he didn't walk right, unless he was a lot more skilled than what he let the world see. Ranma did that all the time since it made people underestimate him, but this was different. Ryan's skill hadn't increased in the least, he had just changed styles and picked up the pace. Then Ranma narrowed his eyes as the style began to change again, almost unconsciously. He threw out several experimental punches and suddenly smirked at Ryan.  
  
"That's a mistake that is going to cost you this fight." Ranma taunted.  
  
"Ha! You can't beat me no matter how much you try."  
  
"Oh well, I did try to warn you." Ranma said and launched the fight into the air. Ryan followed him and they were soon going at it twenty feet above the crowd. They made noises of awe and surprise, several of the women started to cheer on their favorites.  
  
Ranma put on his most annoying smirk and threw a punch at Ryan's face while leaving an opening for a blow to his chest. Ryan took it and launched a kick, but Ranma blurred out of the way. The mistake was instantly apparent, but he tried to recover and failed as Ranma kicked him several times in his exposed back and sent him flying into the ground with a back hand to the jaw that rattled his brains. Then Ranma landed with his knee in his stomach and buried his fist in the stone beside his head. The field went silent at the unexpected feat of strength.  
  
"You have the ability to copy or instantly learn new techniques, but you kept making mistakes. I thought at first that you were doing them on purpose, but the few times I tested you nothing happened. I don't know who taught you how to fight, but even if you can perform the most difficult moves with ease, you have ignored the most basics of hand to had combat and that can be used against you. Your arrogance is also a weakness, it made you sloppy as we fought."  
  
Ryan groaned in pain.  
  
"The beating is for stealing my school without permission and trying to use it against me was your worst mistake. I've trained in Anything Goes for over ten years now and know every move inside and out." Ranma said as he stood up. "You really should have known better."  
  
Ryan groaned again and passed out.  
  
"The final technique was a shiatsu blow to your stomach that can knock you out if hit correctly." Ranma finished.  
  
"That was great Ranma!" Brianna yelled from the crowd and clapped. The Amazons nodded and dispersed without a sound, Ranma was only a man after all. An impressive fighter, but they were better than any man.   
  
"Thanks Brianna."  
  
"Ryan is really hard to beat, he has this habit of pulling nearly impossible moves on people."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yeah, he learned a lot of his martial arts from movies and video games."  
  
"That explains a lot of his style, I felt like I was fighting Jackie Chan for some reason, I'm lucky I've seen all his movies." Ranma said with a grin.  
  
"Indeed, how long do you think he will be out like that?"  
  
"About an hour unless he had more Ki control than what I could see."  
  
Brianna grabbed Ranma's arm and smiled at him as she pulled out this huge weapon of some kind, from where he had no idea, just that it appeared in her hand and started to hum as she flipped the power on. "Then let's go and get some target practice in!"  
  
Ranma groaned as she dragged him across the field.  
  
**********  
  
"Hey Penny, where is Charlotte?" Gina asked the next day as they watched the Bots finishing up the last of the buildings they would need for the power plant.  
  
"I'm not sure, some winged girl came flying in earlier this morning and they flew off together. She called her self Kima or something like that, seemed quite surprised that Charlotte was even here. They should be back later."  
  
"This Kima was from Phoenix Mountain?"  
  
"Yeah, she was some type of big wig or something. She had quite the attitude about us 'lowly humans' and such. When we were talking she kept insulting me as if I couldn't hear her, I just ignored her though. Her insults were a bit juvenile really, I could tell that she hadn't been around much of us modern humans before. The worst thing she called me was a hairless monkey, I almost fell over laughing." Penny said with a grin.  
  
"Hah, I guess we don't have to worry to much then."  
  
"How is Brianna doing with that little project you sent her on?"  
  
"That rock face? I don't know, it was about thirty minutes ago and I haven't heard any..."  
  
BOOM...BOOM...BOOM...BOOOOMMM!!! Followed by the sound of crashing stone, several other explosions and what sounded like small arms fire.  
  
"Explosions yet..." Gina sighed and looked down the river some distance and she could see her sister standing along the newly leveled bank with a smoking plasma rifle and a hundred watt smile lighting up the area.  
  
"Gina that girl has explosives on the brain, you really should talk to her."  
  
"Don't think I haven't tried, even mom has tried to get her to tone things down a bit, but she just loves big guns and large explosions."  
  
"Hey, who is that at her feet?"  
  
"That would be Ranma, I could recognize that color scheme anywhere."  
  
"I think even Ranma knows better than to get in between Brianna and her weapons."  
  
"The first decent sign of intelligence I've seen him use." Gina said knowingly and grinned.  
  
Penny just giggled and nodded.  
  
They were interrupted as a blast of wind washed over them and Charlotte came in for a landing and back winged to slow herself down. She landed beside Penny and hugged her happily. "Hi Penny!"  
  
"Hi Charlotte, how did things go with your friend?"  
  
"Kima is really nice, but she doesn't like humans very much. She kept trying to get me to come back to the mountain with her so that I could be with my own people."  
  
"Why that little..."  
  
"That confused me because I don't ever remember being there at her mountain and yet it is 'where I belong'?  
  
"Your perfectly fine where you are Charlotte, you don't need to go with them."  
  
"Thanks!" Charlotte said and hugged Penny again. "Kima said that you were just using me and that you didn't care about me in the least."  
  
"I'll rip her head for saying such a thing!" Penny growled.  
  
"You will do no such thing child." Said an elderly voice from behind them. They turned to see Elder Cologne hanging off her stick.  
  
"...and why not, they tried to take my friend away from me!" Penny yelled, Charlotte was the first friend she'd made in years and wasn't about to give her up.  
  
"The three tribes of this valley have been at an uneasy peace for about a hundred years now, ever since the last Musk War where that tribe was nearly wiped out of existence. Lord Kima's actions are perfectly normal from her point of view, she will continue to try and take Charlotte away from you. So the sooner you finish and leave the better, I doubt the Phoenix will follow you all the way back to America."  
  
"Were still several days away from completion of this thing, isn't there something else you can do?"  
  
"No, we will not anger the Phoenix."  
  
"Oh." Penny said and frowned. "This a set back I hadn't considered before."  
  
"I've got an idea." Gina said.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Let's send all non needed personnel home, or on a vacation of some kind."  
  
"A vacation?" Penny asked, not comprehending what was being said.  
  
"Yeah, I only brought all the other along to help out and their not really needed anymore. So let's send Ryan, Brit, Ranma, Bri, and Charlotte to some vacation spot. It would get them out of our hair while we finish this and protect Charlotte from the Phoenix, were only going to be here for a few more days anyway."  
  
"Where would we send them?"  
  
"I was thinking one of the places we have permanent light gate set up, Jade, The Retreat, or California."  
  
Penny looked over at Ace as he lounged in the grass by his helicopter with several girls sighing over him. "That might be a good idea, it would cure a number of problems."  
  
"What is this Retreat or Jade you speak of?" Cologne asked.  
  
Gina started, she had forgotten the Elder was standing there. "The Retreat is exactly what it sounds like, over the centuries humans have tried to hunt into extinction things they just could not understand. Werecreatures are on of these, the Retreat is where they went to keep from being murdered because they were so different than the regular humans."  
  
"I had noticed the werecheetah running around here, I've already gotten several requests for permission to kill it already. I was wondering about it."  
  
Gina's eyes turn cold. "My sister is the last of her kind, when she dies there will be no more were-cheetah left, if anyone lays a hand on her..."  
  
"Calm down child, she is obviously non violent and hasn't strayed into areas that we can't keep an eye on her. Right now she is in the helicopter over there sleeping, something she has been doing since yesterday. Besides, all of you are under being treated as untouchables to the tribe, we won't bother you if you don't bother us. That was the agreement and the few guards here are to keep the others away, though they seemed to have taken a liking to the males you brought with you." Cologne said and cackled.  
  
"Right." Gina said and turned to Penny. "Can you get everyone rounded up, we'll let them decide where they want to go."   
  
"Okay, I'll be right back."  
  
"What about that other place you mentioned, Jade?"  
  
"Jade is a parallel world much like except that magic is the main form or power there instead of technology like it is here. They still operate on a much smaller level than we do in the modern world. This area of China is a good example of that Jade is like, small villages and towns that keep to themselves except on rare occasions. Here and there are larger towns and in a few cases cities. The biggest difference is that the other races are there, elves, dwarves, giants, dragons, and anything else you can think of. I've been there several times now, it is a good place to relax so long as you don't mind putting up with the modern conveniences like plumbing and such."  
  
"Sounds like and interesting place, how would one go about getting there?"  
  
"There are several ways Elder, a dimensional teleport spell is the most common way. There are also several gates set up around the world where one can just walk through into Jade, but most of those are heavily guarded."  
  
"Which way do you use?"  
  
Gina grinned. "I use my father, he is a Arch mage in Aura Magic and on the Mage Council on Jade."  
  
Cologne paled a bit and backed off the subject. "I-I see, well good luck to you and tell your friends to enjoy themselves while they are on their vacation."  
  
"Of course Elder." Gina said mildly, she was only a little irritated that the old woman would try and get information out of her that she didn't want to give out.  
  
"Hey Gina!"  
  
Gina turned to see all of her friends heading for her and grinned, one vacation coming up and they would be out of her hair for a few days. She rubbed her hands together and beckoned them over for a little talk. "Guys, I had this idea and seeing as your all so bored an all..."  
  
**********  
  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
  
Notes1 - That's enough for now and ties up a good number of loose ends and sets us up for the next chapter quite nicely. I've had several requests to shorten the chapters so that they can be put out faster so I'll see what I can do. Strider Richards gave me some help with this chapter and made a number of suggestions that helped to improve it quite a bit too.  
  
Notes2 - On my other stories, I nearly have the next chapter to Princess of the moon done (75kb or so) and I should have it out soon, it's a turning point chapter and I have number of things I need to check over before I post it.   
  
Uncles has a short chapter ready, I'll post it as soon as I find most of the mistakes just to finish up the cliffhanger I left with the last chapter.  
  
The Replacement...I have about 30kb of work done on the next chapter and I hate it so much that I'm thinking of scrapping it completely and starting over...  
  
The Strange Days revision is coming along fine, I'm working on chaper 07 right now and should have it done in a few days. Thanks  
  
**********  
  
Side note...  
  
Found the information on the Chinhook at http://www.ch47.org/chinook.htm it was pretty interesting too. I figured I'd include this stuff just incase someone thought I was making it up, though the one Ace uses is a CH-47D experimental version. ^^  
  
General Characteristics, CH-47 Chinook   
Manufacturer:  
Boeing Company  
  
Power Plant:  
Two Textron Lycoming T55-L712 engines  
  
Length:  
99 feet (30.18 meters), including rotor lengths  
  
Height:  
19 feet (5.79 meters)  
  
Rotor Diameter:  
60 feet (18.29 meters)  
  
Empty Weight: 24,000 lbs  
  
Maximum Gross Weight: 50,000 lbs  
  
Useful load:26,000 lbs  
  
Forward and aft cargo hooks: 17,000 each or 25,000 lbs tandem  
  
Center cargo hook: 26,000 lbs  
  
Cruise speed: 150 Knots  
  
Max Speed: 170 Knots  
  
Ceiling: 20,000 feet (6,080 meters)  
  
Range: 385 nautical miles  
  
Crew: Four  
  
Sensors Available:  
Raytheon AN/APQ-174A for terrain following flight, air-to-ground ranging and ground mapping  
  
Raytheon AN/AAQ-16 forward looking infrared (FLIR)  
  
Introduction Date: 1963 


	4. Chapter 04

**********  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 04  
By C. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c) 2002  
**********  
  
There were very few places on Earth that could match up to the beauty of Jade, but a few did exist. Certain parts of the rainforest, parts of China, and rarely visited islands that were almost to small for satellites to pick up. This was mostly because mankind had managed to cause more damage to the planet than in all of history before it, in just four or five short generations. Jade on the other hand was an unspoiled land of giant forests, oceans, and long extinct animals. Mankind was not the only intelligent race on Jade and this made it harder for them to destroy everything in their path. There were the elves that kept the forests safe, Dwarves, Trolls, Rakasha, Dragons, and even Undead creatures that were all struggling to survive.   
  
They didn't have the time or the knowledge to create the horrible weapons of destruction that the Earth Realm used, though that had experienced them upon occasion. Guns did exist here, but keeping them working was nearly impossible and the only race with the knowledge to fix them, the Dwarves, frowned upon the things as evil and usually refused to fix them or charged such high prices for the work that few ever returned. Things like rockets and chemical weapons were actually pretty ineffective here because of the easy access to Magic an special items. With magic one could throw a Fire Ball or Ice Arrow and cause ten times as much damage as any rocket. As for subtle things like chemical weapons, well magic could be used to do this and be so much easier to control as well, so the things were never used.  
  
You ask yourself what about things like cars, tanks, and planes right? Well they are all like the guns, hard to keep working unless you can design and build your own parts. Magic users would be the only ones that would even have the power and knowledge to do this and most of them would prefer to use a simple flight spell or teleport spell anyway. As Gina mentioned to Ranma, think of Jade as very similar to the Slayers Universe with just as many races, problems, and dangers.   
  
Her parents had spent many years adventuring in this realm and compiling quite a horde of gold coins and other trinkets from all the various monsters and bandits that they taken out along the way. One of her favorite places to visit was Seer's Hamlet, a large city that was inside a dimensional pocket in the middle of a grassy plane on the western continent. It was constructed in just such a way as to keep it from disturbing the land it was built on and spiraled high into the trees to give it several levels for people to live on. The city even specialized in dimensional pocket type products like bags of holding and Mage Suits like Dr. Diggers wore. Only wizards and those who lived and worked there could get in without a special pass, outside visitors could get in by using a special door and paying a fee to enter the city. Julia had lived and worked in the city for years and was a welcome visitor whenever she and her family visited, a special privilege granted to all Armsmaster's of Jade.  
  
Seer's Hamlet had a large town square that was always bustling with business, a section of this square was roped off as a special area for Wizards to use as a landing point for teleportation spells. So no one was surprised when this area flared with light and people appeared. Who appeared caused quite a gathering though, Julia Brigand the Armsmaster of Jade, her husband Theodore Diggers the Archmage, a werecheetah, a Rakasha, a winged girl, and a human. Julia smiled at all the people and went out to meet some of them while her husband got them set up for the night at a nearby inn.  
  
"Where are we again?" Ranma asked.  
  
"This is the Jade Realm Ranma, where magic is very real and deadly."  
  
"This is where Julia is going to continue my training?"  
  
"Yes, though this is just a stopping off point. My wife as some business to take care of while were here, then we can move out."  
  
Genn stepped forward. "Thanks for bringing me along, there are some people here that I want to visit. Where and when do you want me to meet you for the return trip home?"  
  
"I think we will be here for a month or two, so meet us here in say...seven weeks?"   
  
"You got it!" Genn said and waved as he ran off.  
  
"Is he going to be alright?" Ranma asked.  
  
Britanny turned to Ranma and raised an eyebrow at him as a question.  
  
"He is so small and puny, can he take care of himself?"  
  
"Genn is Rakasha Ranma, of course he can take care of himself." Britanny said in confusion, then remembered that Ranma did not know just who Genn was. "Um...well..."  
  
"Well if you think so I can live with it." Ranma said and dismissed the subject from his mind. Julia had said that she was going to use this opportunity to increase his training while Gina and Penny were busy with the Amazons. Britanny just blinked and shrugged it off, she didn't feel like explaining Genn anyway. Though she was wondering why he had wanted to come along in the first place, but like Ranma she dismissed it and went on to other things. She would let her father do it instead.  
  
Charlotte had only been here a couple of times and even then she had been doing something for Penny or helping out her friends. She had never been on a vacation quite like this and already missed Penny, she was depressed and looked it. Cheetah noticed and grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off for some serious shopping while they were in town, she would track everyone down later when she needed to. Julia just gave her daughter a weird look and waved as they disappeared into the crowd around them.  
  
"What else was Master Julia thinking of on my training?" Ranma asked Dr. Diggers.  
  
"I'm not sure really, she hasn't said anything specific, but I think she is going to take you to see some of her friends and use the time to test your abilities against them. It's what she did with some of the other students in the past."  
  
"Cool!' Ranma said happily.  
  
A few minutes later Julia returned and gave them a weird look. "You haven't picked out an inn yet?"  
  
"Ranma was asking some questions and I wanted to wait for you. Genn went off to meet some friends while Britanny and Charlotte went off to shop." Dr. Diggers said.  
  
"So were alone for now, huh? Good, Ranma I wanted to talk to you about what happened to you and this is the first chance I've had to do so with no one around. Lets get some rooms in that inn over there and talk things over while we have lunch."  
  
"Sure." Ranma said with a shrug and followed the two adults to the inn where they got three rooms, a happy welcome for one of Jade's Armsmasters, and served a good meal within about twenty minutes. Ranma had eaten some pretty odd things in his life on the road, even a dog or two, but it was the first time he had ever eaten something they called Mutton or lamb.  
  
"So what do you think Ranma?" Julia asked as Ranma picked at the strange food.  
  
"It's fine...though there is enough salt in it to kill the taste of the meat." Ranma said and used the Anything Goes Speed Eating technique to finish it off without tasting it. His arms blurred and the food vanished in a blink of an eye, he slowed down and chewed on the last piece of meat more carefully to decide that he liked it enough to have seconds. "No bad though and certainly filling."  
  
Several of the people in the dinning room actually clapped at the show of speed, though Ranma didn't notice since he was working on his next plate full.  
  
"That's good Ranma, now about that talk. I've noticed that over the last week while you were recovering that you haven't had as much trouble with cats as you have been."  
  
"I'm not sure what happened, I had this dream where I was about to jump off a cliff, then got merged with other bits of myself, and finally going through a major fight with some kind of giant cat like creature. When I woke up after that I could tell that some thing was very different inside me, I wasn't able to recall everything that happened to me, but I noticed almost from the start that a good portion of my fear wasn't there anymore. I'm not sure why though."  
  
"Ah...the biggest thing I've noticed is that you are not as jumpy around Britanny as you were."  
  
"I noticed that too, the fear is still there, but it's a lot easier to control now. I think it has to do with her being a werecat and not a true cat with four legs and stuff. I have noticed a couple of regular cats running around and they were nearly impossible for me to ignore. My fear came back when I saw them and paralyzed me while they were around, so I think I'm over cat like looks, but the real things still send me into the Neko-ken."  
  
"Good, that means those meditation techniques are working to break through some of those barriers in your mind, you are ready to take the next step."  
  
Ranma paled. "The room, huh?"  
  
Dr. Diggers coughed and shook his head to give Julia some signal.  
  
"What is that Theo?"  
  
He started to sweat. "Um...when Ranma had that little episode after the curse...he shattered all the barriers in his mind. The only thing keeping the Neko-ken away right now is Ranma himself."  
  
Ranma paled when he heard that and started to shake, but he managed to calm himself by focusing on something else nearby. He started to watch the serving girls as they made their way around the room delivering food and flirting with the customers. They eventually noticed the handsome man giving them the eye and wiggled a little more to catch his attention and giggled to themselves when Ranma blushed.  
  
"Well that is great, but you really should have told me that before this Theo."  
  
"Sorry Dear."  
  
Julia turned back to Ranma and smiled when she saw him blushing. "With those barriers down you are exactly where you need to be for the final step of your training Ranma. Now all we have to do is follow the final steps in that book."  
  
Ranma shivered and forced a grin. "Y-yeah...okay."  
  
"Great! I was planning to use a special room back home, but since we are here we can have a magically reinforced one set up in a tenth of the time." Julia said. She noticed something behind Ranma and waved.   
  
He turned around to see Britanny and Charlotte coming into the inn carrying several bags of things they had bought on their trip through the area, they headed over to the table and grabbed a couple of seats and tossed their bags on the floor by the chairs. "Hi mom!" Cheetah said as she sat down.  
  
"Hi Britanny, where did you two go?"  
  
"Just to look around and see if anything had changed."  
  
"So what did you find out?"  
  
"The most interesting thing I found was at Nali's Clinic, it seams that the Edge guard is out on a mission. Several of the more powerful Raider groups have recently formed into a larger force and are causing trouble to all the travelers that leave town."  
  
"Really, did she say how things were going?"  
  
"Pretty good actually, the only problems is that for every one of the Raiders that are brought in, several more will take their place and it's keeping the Edge Guard busy. They've been at it for several weeks now and it doesn't look like it is doing much good."  
  
"That sounds weird." Julia said. "These are just normal brigands and bandits?"  
  
"That's how I understood it, there is just a whole bunch of them."  
  
"And the Edge Guard can't handle them because of the numbers?" Dr. Diggers asked.  
  
"That is what Nali said, there are several hundred of them spread out over this entire area. If one group is taken out the rest will move in to cover whatever that group was doing while another tries to free those that were just arrested by sheer numbers or they just recruit more from somewhere."  
  
"Several hundred...did Nali say where they were being held?"  
  
Cheetah thought about it for a second, she hadn't paid much attention to the little details at the time. "I think she said they were using the old Dwarven Mine in the mountains outside of town or something like that."  
  
"I see." Julia said.  
  
A waitress wandered over and noticed the rare werecheetah and a winged girl at a table that had already ordered. "Hello there, have you ordered yet?" She asked just as she noticed the empty bowls of food in front of the others, she smiled at Ranma and winked at him. She smiled at how cute he was when he ducked his head and looked away.  
  
"I'll take a large 'Anything' with Tuna." Cheetah said hungrily.  
  
"I'll have a tuna salad." Charlotte said and smiled.  
  
"Tuna, huh? Sure I'll see if the cook can come up with those. Be back in a few minutes." She said and wandered off.  
  
"Britanny, were any of the Edge Guard at Nali's Clinic?" Julia asked.  
  
"I saw Gar and Sheila while I was there, both were sleeping though, so I didn't get a chance to talk to them."  
  
"Well once you two get finished eating we can head on over there and see if they need our help." Julia said, she hid a grin as Ranma nodded and failed to look innocent with a full face blush going on.   
  
"You go and talk to them Honey, I'm going to talk to the Mage Council and see if they have any insight into this and if I can help you out with the things with Ranma. The Edge Guard may want to take care of this on their own and I leaned my lesson about interfering in those kinds of fights a long time ago." Dr. Diggers said.  
  
Julia smirked and nodded, she remembered their first meeting too. "Meet us there then, I want to introduce Ranma to Gar."  
  
Dr. Diggers nodded and vanished from sight.  
  
"How much more common is Magic here than back home?" Ranma asked suddenly.  
  
"Pretty common." Britanny answered. "When we were here last time we found that things like modern technology actually scared the locals, and yet they could shrug off the sight of an attacking dragon or vaporized house. It was kind off odd."  
  
"They have just never encountered those kinds of things before Britanny and most people fear that which they do not understand. Plus you have to admit that Gina caused quite a bit of damage with those rockets and missiles that were fired off and leveled so much of the forest area. Brianna did the same when she was here a few months ago and had that fire fight in the middle of town and ended up leveling half of the hamlet." Julia said with a smirk.  
  
Cheetah snorted and folded her arms. "I can't help it if my sisters are geeks."  
  
"Britanny Elin Diggers!"  
  
"Alright, alright! I take it back." Cheetah said with a shiver, she had forgotten how fast her mother could get angry at her little comments about her sisters.  
  
"That's better, now you know better than to insult your sisters like that. They have their skills and you have yours, so don't hold it against them."  
  
"Yes mom." Cheetah said and backed down.  
  
Their food arrived a few minutes later and was quickly consumed, for some reason Ranma found himself wishing he had gone for thirds. Eventually finished up and they all set off to visit Nali's clinic and meet up with Dr. Diggers. Ranma followed along feeling as if he was out of his element, looking around didn't help matters for him either, everywhere he looked he saw something that drove home the fact that he wasn't on Earth anymore and it was beginning to a little skittish. The biggest clue were all of the Werecreatures that were wandering around as if it was common place to see such creatures, Julia had explained that non-human creatures were practically everywhere on Jade. Then the there were all the obvious signs of magic that everyone seemed to take for granted, there seemed to be all these different kinds of Magic, some he recognized from legends while others completely baffled him. It seemed to be used for such things as simply lighting up signs to making things float in the air or sparkle to catch the eye. It was all over the place, he even spotted some dwarves and a couple of elves eating lunch at another inn while tossing bits and pieces of magic at each other or demonstrating spells.  
  
This was having a dreadful effect on his Ki senses, they were going crazy trying to take in everything and keep him informed of everything around him. The differences between the different races were so startling that he found it hard to examine them properly as the walked. The Elves glowed with a subtle power while the Dwarves seemed to be made up of nothing more than their emotions and some kind of physical power that over lapped their bodies like scales, it was so hard to concentrate on them that he wasn't able to keep pace with Julia and the others as they moved through the crowd. He was soon left behind when they didn't notice his absence right away. Ranma didn't either, but his wandering soon took him back into the main square before he realized what had happened.  
  
That was when a fox like creature bumped into him and his training kicked in, Ranma reacted before he even had time to even think about what he was doing. One of the things his father had taught him was how to spot thieves and this screamed all the signs he had learned to recognize. Ranma's arm snapped out and grabbed the thing by the neck, lifted him up off the ground, and slammed him against the side of a building before half a second had passed and his mind caught up with his actions. He glared into the thing's eyes and his aura flared for a brief second and scared a good number of the people around him.   
  
"Now thief, return what you took or I will not be pleased." Ranma snapped.  
  
"Um...heheheh..."  
  
The fox like thing trembled in the grip of the human that had caught him and stuttered out an apology as it handed back several items, it had never seen one move as fast as this one did. He was so scared that he couldn't even remember what he had taken from him just seconds before. The human just glared at him for a second and it wondered what was going to happen next. Was it going to die? Get beaten up? Then it looked beyond the human and paled as it saw Sheila of the Edge Guard smirking at him, he would rather have taken this human's punishment than deal with one of them right now. She walked forward and glared at him from over the human's shoulder.  
  
"Hi Clair." She said happily, smiling like the cute werejaguar she was.  
  
"Um...that's Blair the Fox." Blair croaked out.  
  
"So what did you do to get this human so ticked off?"  
  
"Um..." Blair started to sweat.  
  
"He tried to pick pocket me." Ranma said as he eyed the cat girl out of the corner of his eye to make sure she didn't do anything he wasn't expecting. She was short, almost like a little kid even, but carried herself with the confidence of an adult that he was beginning to recognized in people. That meant she was either an adult or a really experienced kid and this Blair's reaction to her made him think it was the first reason. He also recognized that she was a werecat of some kind, but couldn't place just what kind. She reminded him of a younger version of Britanny for some reason, he also noticed that his fear wasn't as bad as it had been lately and that he could. Exactly like his recent experience with Cheetah, did that mean he was getting over the damned Neko-ken finally? "He took my family Tanto knife, he tried to give me everything he had, but that hasn't shown up just yet."   
  
Sheila smiled and looked back at the sweating Blair. "Well?"  
  
"I forgot what I took..."  
  
"My, my, you've taken so much stuff today that you can't remember what it was you stole Blair? You're getting sloppy." Sheila said with a grin that showed off her fangs.  
  
Blair smiled nervously and opened his cloak a bit to reveal a number of knives and such. Ranma and Sheila noted that they were all tucked away to keep them from being seen and not easy access. "Take whichever one was yours."  
  
Ranma's eyes narrowed and considered slamming the thing 'through' the wall for offending him like this, but instead he spotted his family knife and took it back with his free arm. He kept the thing against the wall and increased the pressure just slightly just to make sure it knew that it wasn't off the hook yet. "Thank you, if you had gotten away with this I would have been honor bound to hunt you down and kill you." Ranma said with a nasty grin that his father had taught him.  
  
Blair the Fox, best thief in the area paled and fainted, but not until he lost control of his bladder and pissed himself.  
  
"Ewwwwwwww!!" Sheila said and backed up a little.  
  
"What a wimp." Ranma said. "So what do I do with him now?"  
  
Sheila looked up and noticed the human again and froze in shock, little hearts began to form in her eyes and she blushed. She had never seen a human filled with so much confidence in her life, it was like looking at the most virile man she had ever met. He even put Tirga to shame in the looks department, she sighed and shook herself out of her daydream. "Um...heheheh ...there is a reward out for Blair here, let's get him taken to jail."  
  
"Cool." Ranma said with a smile and carefully picked the thing up like a suitcase, using the back of its shirt as a handle. "Where to?"  
  
"Just up the street, it's right down the way from Nali's clinic."  
  
"The clinic? That's great, it's where I was headed in the first place." Ranma said, he wasn't about to tell her that he was lost, not when he had a guide to take him there. He smiled at her happily as they started to walk down the crowded street together.  
  
"I'm Sheila, one of the town's Edge Guard members." Sheila said.  
  
"Ranma Saotome heir to the Saotome School of Martial Arts."  
  
Sheila smiled. "It's nice to meet you Ranma."  
  
Ranma nodded nervously and wondered why he was feeling funny all of a sudden, then shrugged it off as a waste of time. Until he had met Britanny, Ranma had never once considered that anything like a werecat might exist or were just legends. Master Julia had proven to him on several occasions now that his upbringing under his father hadn't been all the good. He shook himself out of his thoughts as they walked down a side street that had less people than most of the others he had been using, Sheila pointed out the large building at the end and said it was the Jail. The jail happened to be a small building able to hold about two dozen or so criminals and about fifty or so personnel, they dragged the soiled Blair into the building and Sheila quickly has him tossed into a shower area. They hosed him down, stripped him naked, and took everything he owned before handing him a robe and butt kicking him into a cell head first. A magic user cast couple of spells on him to make sure he wasn't carrying any kind of hidden weapons or gear and nodded when he didn't find what he was looking for.  
  
Ranma smirked as Blair looked to be relieved to be out of his hands and put the thing out of his mind, he was just happy to have gotten his Tanto back. He turned to see Sheila coming toward him and smiling happily, she sat a bag and a piece of paper on a nearby desk and waved him over. "Here you go Ranma, I just need you to sign this and the reward is yours."  
  
"Reward?" Ranma asked, he had forgotten about the reward.  
  
"Yep, twenty pieces of gold." She said as Ranma signed his name to the bottom of the paper.  
  
"What am I going to do with twenty pieces of gold?"   
  
"I know it's not much of a reward, but it should get you by for a month or so."   
  
"Thanks, I can put this stuff to use." He mentally added to himself that if his father ever got a hold of any of it he would dead broke within in the hour. Even he knew that back on Earth gold was worth lots of money and he wanted to use it properly, he would ask Julia about when he had a chance.  
  
"So where are you planning to go from here?" Sheila asked nervously.  
  
"I've got to head on over to Nali's clinic and meet Master Julia."  
  
"I'll walk you there, it's just down the street."  
  
"Sure, I'd like that." Ranma said, happy that his plan had worked and earned a little money too.  
  
They stood up and headed out of the building while Ranma tried to find a way to carry a small bag of gold without it getting in the way, behind them another werecat stepped out of the shadows and watch them leave. Tirga frowned as he watched Sheila run off with the human and wondered what was going on, he had never seen that look her face before and he didn't like it. He wondered what it meant and if it was going to cause him any problems for his plans with the girl. With that thought he grabbed up his weapon and took off after them to find out just what was going on. "Sheila wait up!"   
  
Ranma and Sheila stopped and turned around as Tirga ran up to them. "Who's your friend Sheila?"  
  
"Tirga, this is Ranma Saotome."  
  
"Hello Ranma." He reached out to shake hands and Ranma looked at him oddly before grabbing his hand. "What do you think of my girlfriend?"  
  
"Huh?" Ranma said.  
  
"What?!!" Sheila yelled. "Why you arrogant piece of sh*t!!"  
  
"Me and her have been an item for several months now." Tirga said with an evil grin.  
  
Ranma nodded and let his hand go, if they were a couple it didn't matter to him all that much. Sheila was cute, but a little to much of a cat for his tastes anyway. "Sure whatever."  
  
"Excellent...AGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Tirga said just as Sheila kicked him in the balls as hard as she could and grinned as this voice grew in pitch.  
  
"You womanizing simpleton! Jerk! Bastard! and several cuss words that wouldn't be appropriate to list here. I'll KAPOWIE you into your next existence you perverted a**hole!" Sheila yelled as she proceeded to stomp, twist, and maim the moaning weretirger to within an inch of his life.   
  
Ranma stepped back and let her work, it seemed she needed to take some of her anger out on the guy. Whatever he had done must have been quite bad to receive a beating like this, she shuddered as Tirga's pathetic screams went unnoticed by everyone around them, though he did see a couple of other girls in the off to the side calling out pointers on what to do with the guy. Ranma started to sweat a little as they listed some rather mean things to do and stepped back into a shadow so that they didn't focus on him when they got done with this Tirga person. Eventually the screams ceased and Sheila stood up with a huff and wiped the dust off her hands.   
  
"That will teach you to lie about me to other people you jerk."   
  
"YEAH!!" Yelled several of the girls that were cheering her on.  
  
"Humph!!" Sheila growled and turned back to Ranma. "Sorry about that, Tirga thinks were a couple and I can't make him stop telling others about it."  
  
"Um...that's okay." Ranma said nervously, he really didn't want to get on this girl's bad side.  
  
"So where were we going again?"  
  
"Nali's Clinic..."  
  
"Could you pick him up, we might as well as drop Tirga off while were there and I want to meet some of your friends." Sheila said as she pointed at the weretiger.  
  
"Sure." Ranma said, glad to get her anger focused somewhere else. He grabbed up Tirga, now pretzel shaped, and carried the groaning werecat to Nali's Clinic. They went inside and saw Charlotte and Cheetah sitting in a small waiting room, they stopped talking and waved to Ranma and Sheila as they came in. He saw that Julia wasn't with them, but held off asking where she was as some of Nali's assistants came out and took the graining werecat.   
  
"Hi you two, where is everybody else?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Cheetah?!" Sheila screeched.  
  
"Oh hi Sheila, I was wondering what happened to you." Cheetah said with a grin.  
  
"If your here, is there anyone else here?!"  
  
"Charlotte here, my parents, Ranma here, and Genn, but he ran off when we showed up."  
  
Sheila spun around and glared at Ranma. "Why didn't you tell me you were here with them?"  
  
"Huh? I did, I told you I was here to meet Master Julia."  
  
"Who the hell is Master Julia?!"  
  
"That would be me." Julia said as she stepped out of the back with Nali.  
  
Sheila gasped, finally able to put Ranma's names to a face and realizing that he was talking about Julia Brigand Diggers the Armsmaster of Jade. "Julia Brigand! Of course..."  
  
"Hello Sheila, what are you doing back here so soon?" Nali asked with a friendly smile.  
  
"I brought Tirga in."  
  
"Tirga? What happened this time?" He was a regular customer at the clinic, ending up at the clinic several times a month, usually pretzel shaped and in need of a muscle relaxant.  
  
"Sheila here beat the crap out of him." Ranma said with a grin and patted the girl on the shoulder.  
  
She gasped and punched Ranma before she thought about it, sending him flying through a wall and out into the street before he could recover. "Jerk!" *  
  
He slid down to the ground and lay there for several seconds as the world spun around his head. Ranma groaned and lifted his head, he found himself at the foot of a wall across the street and staggered to his feet, fighting off a wave of nausea. He saw everybody gathered at the hole in the side of the clinic to see if he was alright and a blushing Sheila. Ranma was confused for a second as he tried to figure out what had happened, then growled and yelled at Sheila.   
  
"What the hell was that for, you Tomboy?!"  
  
"What?!" Sheila yelled back, she didn't take well to being called weird names. "You insulted me!"  
  
"I did not!"  
  
"Did to!"  
  
"I did not!"  
  
"Did to!"  
  
"I did not!"  
  
"Did to!"  
  
"I did not!"  
  
By this time Ranma and Sheila were in each other's face and yelling at the top of their lungs. Julia stepped between them before the fight turned to blows and pulled the two apart. "Stop it you two, you're making a scene."  
  
Ranma glowered and sighed as he stepped back. "Yeah whatever."  
  
Sheila growled and stomped off in a huff, she was feeling funny and didn't want to cause anymore trouble anyway, would have a word with Ranma later. She knew she was in the wrong, but wasn't about to admit it to anyone now, she had her pride after all. She would make apologies later when she had calmed down a little. Behind her Ranma glared at her before making his way into the clinic and find a place to meditate on his problems and regain his control. He passed a weeping Nali, completely ignoring her as she complained about having to spend even more money to get the place repaired again. Less than a month since it was nearly leveled in the last fight that had taken place here.  
  
**********  
  
"Hanzo!!"  
  
"That's Hanza you rusting pile of filth!!" Hanza yelled as she walked into the room and glared at the man in armor that was yelling for her. She stood a little taller than most girls and was wearing an odd assortment of clothing, the first thing most noticed was the skin tight torso wrap that showed off some impressive curves and a pair of breasts that were in the DD territory and a total lack of a bra. Then there was the flared tights she was wearing and the thick pair of comfortable shoes to keep her from being heard when she walked. On her arms were a pair of plain leather bracers. On her back was a rather large sword that most men wouldn't touch on a good day, let alone a woman, but Hanza didn't seem to feel its great weight as she scowled at the man in front of her. She had been using it for years and had more than enough strength to use it with flare and skill.  
  
Her face was one of the thing about her that most men remembered, it would have been very pretty and alluring if the hate filled perma-scowl hadn't been there. The hated in her eyes did more to make men back off than anything of her actions, there was an aura about her that made people back off and keep her at a distance. Then there was her hair as it rose straight up in a Vegeta like quality and defied gravity. She stomped forward and waited for her orders, it was a paying job so she didn't care who she worked for so long as it kept her out of prison for a while.   
  
"What do you want you Tin Can?!"  
  
"Careful Hanza, remember your not what you used to be."  
  
"F**ck you a**hole!!" Hanza screamed.  
  
"As fun as it is to rile you Hanza, I have a mission for you."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Julia Brigand was spotted in Seer's Hamlet a few hours ago, I want you to go and check it out. See why she is here and so forth."  
  
"Who else was with her?"  
  
"There were several people, Julia, her adopted daughter Britanny, her husband, and a couple of strangers that no one has ever seen before. A human male and a winged girl that was hanging around with the werecheetah."  
  
"Fine!" Hanza snapped and spun around to stalk out of the room.  
  
"Don't forget to 'man' handle them Hanza dear."  
  
She glared at the Tin Can and slammed the door to the room as she left, a bit of dust fell from the ceiling from the force of the blow. He chuckled as she listened to her stomp her way down the corridor and out of hearing range. It was a given that she would head straight for Seer's Hamlet where Julia had been spotted, the Edge guard were there and the possibility for revenge. Her anger made her so easy to manipulate and her pathetic attempts at revenge were always good for a good laugh at times. She was the perfect one to send out and look things over, she was an idiot, but just smart enough to be dangerous to whoever got in her way. Her scouting mission would be a lot of fun to watch.   
  
Hanza stomped into her room to grab her cloak up and a few other items she would need on the trip to Seer's Hamlet. She would have to be careful while she was there since she was on the most wanted lists around the area, escaping the prison had probably put the Edge Guard's list as well. The Edge Guard were going to be a problem, but since Sheila was a member of the team she had known for some time that she would be going up against them anyway. She had been training for that last few months, even going back to Master Karia and having her finish she training she had started so long ago before the Turnament of Arms had taken place.   
  
She doubted that she could go up against Julia Brigand, but didn't think that the others wouldn't be a problem now that she had chance to get her revenge. Pulling the hood up, she raised her hand and looked at the ring on her finger and grinned. It served two purposes really and she loved both of them, the most common use was that it was a spell ring and could cast three different spells once per day, or one spell three time per day, depending on what she wanted. She could have any three spells that she might need and usually kept Teleport, haste, and invisibility in the ring at any one time. The second use was that it made her look married and kept those horn dog men off her back, being hit on gave her the willies and she had been dragged off of more than one persistent suitor while in the process of killing him. The ring had been expensive, but worth every gold it cost her, since then she had been able to get back on her feet financially.  
  
With a mental command and a clenched fist the ring flared with light and she vanished from the room. She appeared in the town square of Seer's Hamlet a few seconds later and moved out instantly and found herself in front of a guard and handed him three copper for the entrance fee before moving off. There were a number of things she needed to do before she took her revenge. Some special equipment would be needed for this mission, the Diggers family was dangerous, even she could admit that since they had been instrumental in ruining her life on at least two occasions. She smirked from inside her hood as she approached one of the specialty shops that littered Seer's Hamlet, these places were probably one of the few places on Jade where some of the stuff she wanted could be found without resorting to the underground trade market.  
  
So much stuff and so little time to use it all, she didn't know where to begin first and browsed happily. It was in the weapon displays in back that she found what she was looking for, it called to her in it's simple elegance and strength. It was a spear of some kind, but shaped differently than most. As if it had been designed for more than one form of combat, it had a dwarven metal shaft of six foot in length with a specially shaped handle near the end for easy grip and use. The blade portion on the other end was the most unique and what had caught her eye. It was a thick blade that flared at the ends into a serrated reversed arrow like tip that flared in four different directions and looked like it could cause some really nasty damage.  
  
She grinned at the thing as she lifted it off the wall and held it carefully, testing it's perfect balance and the feel of the weapon. The thing was perfect in every way imaginable and would allow her to get her revenge in ways that hadn't been available before. Whoever had designed the thing had to have been one of the most talented weapons makers in all of Jade. What in the hell was a thing like this doing up for sale in a place like Seer's Hamlet that specialized in specially designed dimensional equipment? She couldn't ever remember a time that any of the town's shops carried anything beyond basic equipment.  
  
"What do you think Miss?" Asked a little man as he wandered up.  
  
"This weapon is beautiful, where did it come from?" Hanza asked.  
  
"That is a piece of work done by the Dwarf Te'level of the Berylknight clan, he passed through town a few months ago and sold some of his weapons to the local dealers to let his work be given to a wider class of people. He was sick of smithing axes, hammers, and blades and wanted to challenge his skills with things like that. I have three other items in stock made by the same dwarf that might interest you miss. Te'Level wanted the whole thing sold as a set anyway, it is quite good work and well worth the price."  
  
Hanza just smirked, she had never heard of the dwarf but it looked like they were still creating some of the best weapons in the world. Humans tended to build for quantity, while elves went for beauty, but dwarves went for usable masterpieces. "Show me what else this talented dwarf did."  
  
"Of course, follow me into the back room. I haven't had a chance to put these items on display just yet."  
  
They made their way into the back and Hanza saw three men working on getting some items ready for them, setting them out on a table even as they approached. "I see we were anticipated."  
  
"Indeed." Hanza said, knowing full well that running a business like this was a risky gamble unless you had tight security. She looked the table over and saw that a couple of strange items had been set out, things she hadn't expected from a dwarf. The first was a black body stocking that glistened in the torch light of the room. The second was a suit of armor that looked like it was completely useless, except for anything but making the wearer look good. It was made of a dark silver and complemented the stocking almost perfectly. Set beside these were a pair of gauntlets with wider than normal wrist guards that looked like they had come straight from the Earth Realm. The final piece of the armor was a pair of boots that matched the armor perfectly and had slots in the insides to hold throwing daggers, in all she loved it immediately.  
  
"This is a full set of armor, the stocking is actually a very strong back metal weave that is a thin a silk and works almost as well as chain mail. Te'level said that he designed the outfit for style and usability and can be adjusted in a number of ways. The armor is a torso armor that is magically reinforced to withstand most common forms of magic, things like Fire Balls, Flame Arrows, and other types of impact magic. As you can see the armor is designed for a woman, it is like the stocking because it will mold its self to your body while you wear it. The hip guards have small metal pouches able to hold small items for use. Te'level suggested that if anyone bought the armor to take it to a wizard and have the pouches enchanted into bags of holding. We can perform that service for you if you want to pay extra for it."  
  
"What about the forearm and shoulder guards?"  
  
"Those are adaptable as well, coming with a number of uses and items. The basic set up that you see is an attachable knife and spiked shoulder guards. The spikes are small so that you don't end up injuring yourself if an accident happens. The blade is removable and can be replaced with a shield or anything else you want special made."  
  
Hanza was drooling over the armor and just knew that it was going to be expensive if she bought it out right. "How much for the whole set up including the spear?"  
  
"1200 gold pieces."  
  
Hanza winced. "Ah...isn't that a bit much?"  
  
"Te'level specialized in magical weapons and everything here has a bit of magic in it, that is why it is so expensive."  
  
She could afford it, but wouldn't leave her with much personal money for other things. Luckily her criminal carrier had been paying off lately and she had a good amount stashed away for a rainy day. "Tell you what, I'll give you 800 gold right now and we can call it even. Otherwise I'll have to leave and I don't know if I'll be heading back in this direction anytime soon."  
  
"Hmmm...make it 950 and you've got a deal."  
  
"Agreed, but only if you add in that bag of holding and a fitting for the armor."  
  
"975 for all that."  
  
"Fine, I agree."  
  
"Excellent, the fitting should take about two hours and we can have the pouches done by the time were done."  
  
Hanza just smiled and nodded as she reached into her cloak and pulled out the gold she needed. She wasn't all that worried since she had several thousand golds buried out in the forest for when she would need it, but hoped this armor would be a good investment. Dwarven Armor and weapons were nearly indestructible so she figured the high price would be worth it, but if it didn't do as she had been told this shop was going to pay. She smirked as she saw the little man's eyes light up at the sight off all that gold, a feeling she knew all to well.  
  
"Let's hurry this up, I have some friends I want to meet and I want to show them my new armor."  
  
"Of course my lady."  
  
An hour and a half later she was checking herself out in the new armor and almost embarrassed about how good it felt on her body. It didn't pinch anywhere and hugged her curves in an obscene way that made her shiver. She may not have always been like this, but she did like the way she looked and it made her feel powerful. Her cloak could even be warn over the armor to conceal it for when she didn't want to stand out. She thanked the little man and walked out twirling her new staff.  
  
With her hood up and her cloak closed no one paid her any attention as she wandered out into the town. There were two people here that she wanted to make pay for some of her suffering, Nali at the town's clinic, and most of the local Edge Guard had caused her some kind of problem at one time or another. She had been waiting for some time now to get her revenge and with her orders from the Tin Can she had every intention of doing so. Hanza's thoughts were interrupted as she stepped around a corner and saw Sheila storm out of the clinic looking more than a little pissed.   
  
"Hah! Talk about convenient." Hanza gloated to herself. "Time for a little payback."  
  
**********  
  
Sheila sighed as she stalked into a bar and plopped herself down in a chair, this day was one of the odder ones of late and it was getting on her nerves. For some odd reasons that she couldn't understand just why she had blown up at Ranma the way she had, he hadn't really done anything except tell everyone what she had done to Tirga, something she did all the time anyway. The werecat had been chasing her for some time now because she happened to be one of the few females that didn't warship at this feet and lick his boots for a night in the sack. The worst part about Tirga was that she liked him enough that she knew that love wouldn't be far behind if they ever got together, but the womanizing pervert was always chasing other women even when he was supposed to have a regular girlfriend. He seemed to have a new one every few weeks and took pride in showing them off to his friends. She had seen it dozens of times as he went from one girl to another and broke hearts at the drop of a hat with no consideration for others feelings, just an excuse to get into their pants before moving on.  
  
It was one of the main reasons that she still refused him after all this time and it confused the hell out of him no matter how close he had gotten at times. She smirked to herself as she recalled the time she used a Rakasha to have a one night stand with a Tirga look alike, it had been incredible and something she needed a lot. A Rakasha's magic allowed them to imitate anyone and anything perfectly in ever shape and form, their shape changing abilities were legendary all over Jade. That had been the reason that she was once nearly been caught by Tirga and only a little help from her brother had saved her from being placed in a bad situation, the Rakasha had copied Tirga right down to the way he smelled. It was something that Tirga had picked up on almost immediately, she had always felt a little guilty for enjoying it so much. It was also a thousand times better than being dumped by the real thing a couple of weeks after it happened.  
  
The last few months had been even worse as he tried time and again to get her to agree to a little fun in the sack, but at the same time he continued to bed and dump girls on an almost weekly basis. As a werecat he was sought out like rare wine because of his enhanced physical abilities that a lot of human girls just drooled over. Even Brianna, one of Julia's sisters had nearly fallen for the guy the one time she was here, Tirga had flashed her while in the bath to let her know that he was willing. He knew just how to go about winning a girl with his charms and a little public nudity wasn't all he would stoop to if he thought it would get him what he wanted. Sheila had never had eyes for another man and her resistance to Tirga had been crumbling lately.   
  
Then she had watched Ranma Saotome take on that thief with ease, one of the few humans she had ever met that made her heart skip a beat the instant she laid eyes on him. He was well built and a very good fighter, it showed in all his movements and actions. To be a student of Julia Brigand he would also have to be an exceptionally special, she didn't take on may students and all of them were famous in one fashion or another. Her brother Garfield was a student of Julia's and was one of the strongest fighters in the area, few would cross him unless they absolutely had to. He had even fought G'nolga the dwarven weapon's master to a stand still once and that was very hard to do. She was Julia's main rival in the arts and constantly took steps to make sure that they would have to fight each other.  
  
One of the waitress' walked up and smiled at Sheila. "Hi Sheila, you look like you had another encounter with Tirga today."  
  
"Hi Sammi, yeah, he got jealous of this guy I met and tried to butt in where he wasn't wanted."  
  
"You just give up on Tirga, he won't ever change and you know it."  
  
"Yeah I know, but I keep thinking if I'm patient he will change his ways."  
  
"Hah!! Not until he looses the ability to get it up!" Sammi giggled and Sheila blushed. "Who was this other guy you were with?"  
  
"His name is Ranma Saotome, one of Juila Brigand's new students."  
  
Sammi gasped. "A new student?!"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Eeeeeeee!! Is he cute?"  
  
"Very cute."  
  
"Is he like you?"  
  
"Naw, he's human and very well formed if you know what I mean." Sheila said with a smirk.  
  
"Ohhhhhh! Where is he, I want to meet him."  
  
"I left him and the others at Nali's Clinic, I don't know where he is right now." Sheila says as she looks up at her friend and pales as she sees a cloaked figure walk up behind her holding this nasty looking spear weapon. Sammi turns around when her friend pales, screams, and runs out of the room even as Sheila is standing up to confront the stranger.  
  
"Hello Sheila of the Edge Guard."  
  
"Who are you and what do you want?" Sheila snaps as she calls her magical blade Ice Fang. She could tell that the spear like weapon was magical in some way, magical waves were almost wafting off the thing.  
  
"I'm here to get my revenge of course, you were one of the ones there when I was afflicted with this curse."  
  
"I don't' know what your talking about!" Sheila snarled.  
  
"I don't really care what you think." The cloaked figure spun the staff and stopped it point first at Sheila. "All of you Edge guard are going to pay for doing this to me."  
  
"Back off lady before you force me to Kapowie you into next week!"  
  
"Never!!" The strange blade of the spear glowed and fired out a fireball that Sheila easily dodged, but not before it flew by her and took out the side wall of the bar in a large explosion, showering bricks and mortar all over the alley on the other side.  
  
With a quick kick Sheila's table was using flipped into the figure's face and she attacked as it was being knocked away with a snarl. She attempted to hit the figure over the head, but she swung the spear and forced Sheila to duck. The spear was spun and the back end came up and connected with Sheila's jaw and sent her flying across the room to slam back first into the bar. "HAHAHAHAH!!! Is that the best you can do?!"  
  
"I'll get you for that cheep shot." Sheila growled out as she stood up and watched out of the corner of her eye as the bar's main floor was suddenly devoid of all innocent bystanders. Years of bar fights had taught the regulars when to stay and when to run for their lives, magic weapons meant high scale destruction and that told them to run. Sheila studied her opponent a little more, but ignored the fire that had been started by the fireball that blew the side wall out. Her attacker didn't seem to notice or didn't care about the kind of damage she was doing and that made things easier for Sheila in the long run, it meant the girl was careless.  
  
"HAHAHAH!! Not in this life time!"  
  
Sheila snarled as he spun her scimitar and raised it above her head, it began glowing with white light. "Back down or I will make you pay."  
  
"Never!!"  
  
Sheila jumped forward and spun her blade around so that it's tip impacted into the floor. "ICE KAPOWIE!!" and sent out a wave ice cold energy that headed right for the figure, but she just laughed and tossed her cloak into the ice beam where it was suddenly encased in a wall of Ice. Now she was able to get a good look at her opponent and Sheila had to blink in surprise at what she saw. She was dressed in a black body suit and curve hugging silver armor that gleamed in the fire raging around them.  
  
"HAHAHAH!! You've got to do better than that Sheila." The girl hissed.  
  
"Who in the hell are you?!"  
  
"You man call me Hanza."  
  
"Hanza, that guy that stole and drank Nali's potion in the middle of a fight with out reading the warning on the thing?"  
  
"That potion turned my perfect male body into this female mockery and all of you will pay for my pain!"  
  
"It was your fault idiot!"  
  
Hanza screamed and launched forward performing a quick set of attacks that Sheila was barely able to block. The sound of their attacks and counter attacks filled the air of the bar for several minutes as Hanza's attack pushed Sheila to the limit. Then Hanza clenched her fist and her speed tripled and dozens of blows rained down on Sheila, cracking bones and sending her head through the wooden floor of the bar. She moved to stand triumphantly over the downed werecat and laughed as she brought her spear around for the kill, the taste of revenge sweet and delicious after all this pain and suffering she had endured. She raised up her weapon to plunge it down into the werecat's spine and pin her to the floor so that she could take her out permanently.   
  
Then a board hit Hanza in the back of the head and sent her stumbling away from Sheila prone body by several steps. She turned to glare at whoever had hit her and saw a human wearing a red shirt and black pants as he lowered a broken board and tossed it to the side. She noted the glow as it formed around him and the defensive stance he took as he glared at her and silently promised her lots of pain. With a snarl Hanza straightened up and glared back at the punny fighter in front of her and smirked to herself, this was going to be too easy.  
  
"I can't allow you to do that to Sheila, I haven't even had a chance to apologies to her yet." Ranma said.  
  
"Bring it on wimp, there isn't a human in existence that can stand up to my power." Hanza growled.  
  
"R-Ranma..." Sheila gasped as she stirred and tried to sit up.  
  
"Stay down and rest Sheila, I'll take care of this little girl, a bit of fancy looking armor isn't enough to turn someone into a decent fighter."  
  
"But..."  
  
Ranma stepped forward and looked Hanza over to judge her skill, it would have been quite a surprise for either of them to know just how many things they had in common. They had both had their lives turned upside down by a shape change into the opposite gender, though Hanza would have cut off her own foot to have Ranma's curse instead of the permanent transformation she had gone through. The effects of that potion had granted her a number of increased abilities alone with the change in sex. Increased strength, speed, and endurance were just the beginning of what she had gained and she had found that she was nearly unstoppable when she used her full strength. Ranma's reaction to Hanza's change would have been a bit different, he would be on the floor rolling in laughter at Hanza's stupidity, luckily neither of them knew any of this or it would have been a whole different fight.  
  
Fortunately for Sheila, Ranma had entered the bar just in time to see Sheila about to get killed by this over endowed girl in funny looking armor, so hitting her over the head with that board hadn't bothered him all that much. If the need was there he would not hesitate to protect anyone against a girl and this Hanza was already on his bad side for pushing a fight to the point that she thought killing would make things better. He smirked as he looked Hanza over and she suddenly realized that this boy must have been one of the unknowns that she had been told about. Killing him wasn't going to be a problem, he wasn't even taking a proper defensive stance against her.  
  
"Put the weapon down girly, the Edge Guard is only a few minutes behind me." Ranma lied with a completely straight face.  
  
"They are just next on my list and if you don't get out of my way I'm going to kill you just like I will them." Hanza growled and brought her weapon around and attacked Ranma without much more warning.  
  
He just snorted and hopped back out of the way of the swing and studied her attack, noting that she had some skill with the weapon. She didn't over extend as most did and had a good reaction time, but ten years of training under his father had given Ranma a good idea what a well trained fighter was and this girl did not meet that description in the least. She was using toys to accomplish her goals and once they were gone she would be done for. He stepped into her guard and landed a couple of hard punches to her forearms to make her drop the weird weapon and sent her flying onto a table with a knee to her chin. Hopefully it would knock her out before he had to pull something more devastating out and hurt this girl with something more than a few rattled teeth and a headache.  
  
Hanza groaned as she rolled off the table and rubbed her chin and reassessed the man in front of her, he had avoided and attacked her in a way that she hadn't seen before. She had expected a fighter, but nothing like this had crossed her mind in the slightest. A quick glance showed that her spear was out of reach and that he now had the upper hand in this fight, that would not work, not in the slightest. There were to many people trying to stop her from getting her revenge, she had sacrificed too much to get to this point to give up now. She clenched her fist and brought up her hand with the ring on it as it began to glow.   
  
"That pathetic hit won't stop me."  
  
"Give it up girl, you don't stand a chance of beating me." Ranma said arrogantly and grinned at her.  
  
"Cue Speed."  
  
The ring flared and as the Haste spell was activated and Hanza's form blurred, she shot forward in a silver and black after image. Ranma didn't even have time to blink as she slammed into him throwing punches and kicking faster than he could react. He was sent to the floor face first by a devastating combo, never had he thought anything like that was possible. A small part of Ranma reminded him that he didn't have all that much experience dealing with magic like this, but he knew he would have to find a way to combat this attack in some way. He just felt lucky that she hadn't pulled a knife and stabbed him to death in that instant.  
  
His mind scrambled as Hanza stopped for a few seconds to laugh at him, but he ignored her for the most part as he stood up. He had taken worse poundings from Julia in thier sparing matches lately, the speed of the attack was what had caught him off guard and he would have to find a way to counter her new speed. He flashed upon an idea, but he wasn't sure if he could do it with his Ki, Master Julia had never mentioned anything like it before and experimenting was highly dangerous. He turned to face Hanza again and brought his battle aura up into the visible spectrum, it had the effect of making those watching from a distance gasp in surprise, it was almost ten times brighter than what he had used before.   
  
"Super speed, huh? I didn't expect that out of a fight like this." Ranma said.  
  
"It's a spell called Haste and used by a great deal of fighters." Hanza crowed, confident of her victory since there wasn't a thing this arrogant man could do about it.  
  
Ranma studied her attack and smirked as an idea came to him, there was a way to do it, but he didn't know what kind of speed it would allow him. "Bring it on Tomboy, I want to see this attack of yours again."  
  
"You asked for it." Hanza yelled and flashed forward again and intended this to be the final time since there was a time limit on how long the Haste spell would last.  
  
In the blink of an eye Hanza saw his battle flare up around him and he seemed to phase into the very air around her. She continued on with the attack to see what he was up to and found to her surprise that Ranma was blocking her blows. Hanza pulled back for a second and smiled. "Impressive, but futile."  
  
"Heh, I don't think so." Ranma said. "I beat your speed technique."  
  
"Did you?" Hanza asked and blurred again.   
  
This time Ranma was shocked to find that she hadn't been going all out as a hundreds of blows rained down on him and pounded him into the floor. That was the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness, he wondered if he had failed to save Sheila. Hanza giggled a little as the spell finally ran out and she stopped by her spear to pick it up before turning to finish off the werecat. The tip of a sword was being pressed into her nose the instant she turned around and looked up into the face of Sheila's brother Garfield, he did not look pleased at all as his battle aura flared around him and his eyes turned flinty and dangerous. Behind him stood the rest of the Edge Guard, all of them with their magical weapons ready to finish her off, she didn't like the odds at all.  
  
"Hello Hanza, I thought you were in prison?" Garfield asked with barely suppressed fury. He would protect his sister at all costs and he had the power to back it up if he needed to.  
  
Behind the Edge guard were the ones Hanza was looking for, Julia Brigand Diggers, Cheetah, and she even noticed Nali as she moved across the room to check on Sheila. None of them looked all that happy and were giving her looks that promised lots of pain, it was beginning to get on her nerves. She turned back to Garfield and grinned evilly as she answered his question. "I got out."  
  
"You were given a fifty years sentence for your crimes and it's only been a few months since you were sent away, that means you escaped some how, now put the weapon down before you force us to put you down permanently."   
  
"Well Gar, I don't want to spend fifty years sitting in a small room so I refuse to do that. I've got to pay all of you back for ruining my life after all." Hanza said with an insane giggle.  
  
"You ruined your own life Hanza, through your own mistakes and the way you lead your life doing stupid things like this." Garfield said as his body started to spark with power that Hanza could feel growing stronger and stronger, then she remembered that Garfield was a special form of werecat, a Lunar Rave. Allowing him to increase his speed, strength, and sized considerably.  
  
Hanza smiled and decided that there wasn't anything she could do against the whold team and clenched her fist. The ring flared and she vanished with a burst of light that startled all of them, Garfield growled and shattered a nearby table in anger. He turned on the rest of his team and glared at them. "I thought we had her spells blocked off?!!"  
  
"Calm down Gar." Onoli said calmly. "I had the whole building shielded from magic use, the only thing that should have worked was your weapons."   
  
"SHE GOT AWAY!!"  
  
"Then we'll get her next time and take better precautions. We need to see about helping this human that did our job for us and keep your sister alive while we made our way here." Onoli said. He was the leader of the team and one of calming influences that kept them working smoothly and with all those bandits running around lately his calm presence was really needed. Onoli was a trained in the one of the bushido schools of Jade and let very little affect him unless it was an emergency. "Now calm down and go check on your sister, Gar."  
  
Garfield spins around and sheaths his sword as he stomps over to where Nali is working on his sister, he sighs in relief when he notices that she is only unconscious and not seriously injured. He was glad she had been in her werecat form, it would mean that she would eventually regenerate, but Hanza had done a fair amount of damage to her with that magic weapon and damage from on of those was harder to heal than a normal weapon. He looked over at the human that had defended her and saw Master Julia checking on him. She looked concerned and a little up set as she looked him over. "Will he be alright Master Julia?"  
  
"He should be, but he won't be very happy when he wakes up."  
  
"I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did, normal humans don't normally stand up to a Haste spell very well."  
  
"That's the problem, he is an exceptional fighter and can do things with ease that even give me trouble. The problem is that he has never encountered a fighter that uses magic before, he didn't know how to defend himself properly, I haven't had a chance to show him how to defend against magic. That was one of the reasons we are here, to get him that training and find a cure for something else."  
  
"I remember that hell you put me through back in training, will he be going through the same thing?"  
  
"That and more, he picks up new attacks and strategies as easily as breathing. Did you feel that surge of Ki as we were making our way here?"  
  
"Yeah, was that him?" Garfield asked in surprise.  
  
"Yes and I only just started instructing him in the uses of Ki a few weeks ago and already he is improvising like a pro."  
  
"A few weeks ago? That's incredible, it took me months to pick up on the delicate balance of of the body before I could even tap the stuff."  
  
"Exactly, he does it on instinct and with barely any control. Everyday he improves and grows more and more powerful, unfortunately he also seems to find all the fighters that want to kill him for oddest reasons."  
  
"Oh? Have you had him checked for curses?"  
  
"Theo scanned him and came up with nothing, though he did pick up a transformation curse a little over a week ago."  
  
Nali came over and knelt down to examine Ranma and her brows rose in surprise at what she found. "Amazing, I've never seen a human that could to that."  
  
"What did you find?" Julia asked.  
  
"This boy is that new student you were telling me about right?" Nali asked.  
  
"Yes." Julia nodded.  
  
"Look at his Ki field, it's healing him at an incredible rate of speed and I don't sense any kind of magic at work. It's on par with the weak regenerative abilities of most werecats, it just works at a much slower rate of speed. This beating would have killed a normal human or crippled them for life, Ranma here is sewing his broken body back together so that the damage will be gone in a matter of hours. He won't even have any scars left over to remind him of this battle, for a human I've never seen anything like it."  
  
"When did he learn how to do that?"  
  
"It's instinctive just like you said, but I think there is something different about this student of yours Master Julia, he has a weird aura." Garfield said. "What about my sister Healer Nali?"  
  
"Sheila has taken a beating worse than this one, but I think she will be conscious in an hours or so and back to normal by tomorrow morning at the latest, though with her healing ability I expect later on this after noon to be the earliest."  
  
Nali frowns and thinks about what Garfield had said, she turned back to Ranma and gasped in shock. "Julia, you never said Ranma was afflicted with such a horrible curse!"   
  
"Huh, what are you talking about?"   
  
"His aura is different than a normal humans, I didn't think to look until Gar said something. Look at the aura and tell me what you see, have you ever seen anything like it?"  
  
Julia frowned and turned back to her student and concentrated to see his aura and frowned a little more, she had been reading his aura for weeks, but his was new. There was something off about it, but she couldn't remember what an aura like that meant, only that it meant she would have to keep a closer eye on him over the next few weeks. "I can see something different, but can't tell what the problem is."  
  
"Your close, it isn't what is out of place, but what isn't there..." Nali hints.  
  
"Oh my..." Julia gasps as the sees what the healer is talking about.  
  
"I see you noticed it." Dr. Diggers says as he walks into the room and walks over to his wife.  
  
"You knew about this Theo?" Julia asks.  
  
"When I had to fuse his personality back together after he picked up that curse I noticed it and hoped I was wrong, but knew deep down that it wasn't."  
  
"How is this possible for a human as young as him? I've met mystic masters that have lived for two and three hundred years that can't come close to this."   
  
"This isn't about training and meditation, this is about that curse and the way it wound its way into this soul. That is part of the reason I went to talk to the council, I wasn't absolutely sure until I had a look through some of the old texts in the library."  
  
"What about the training we brought him here for in the first place, can we still do do that with this happening to him?"  
  
"Oh sure, this shouldn't affect the training all that much, just the way the sees things from now on. We can use one of the rooms at Brod's tower, he had the place constructed so that it could not be dismantled very easily and it even reconstructs itself when damage is done so a berserk Ranma will be locked in tight. There is no way he could escape if things went bad during the training, if they do me and some of the others will be ready to lend a magical hand."  
  
Julia nods, she had thought about going to Brod, but didn't want to impose in the old Troll Wizard for something like this. "Did you talk to him?"  
  
"Yes, he said he had a couple of rooms that would be perfect for the training that Ranma wants to go through and can be sealed closed with ease. How long do you think it will be before Ranma wakes up?"  
  
Julia sighed. "Does it really matter with the way his Aura is?"  
  
"I guess not, he has achieved a rare thing almost by chance and wonder what his future is going to be like when it kicks in fully. I hope he can survive yet another upheaval in his life."  
  
Julia nods. "Can you teleport us back to the Inn where were staying?"  
  
"Take us to my clinic instead Dr. Diggers, I need to observe Ranma and Sheila until they wake up." Nali said as she stood up, there wasn't anything else she could do here when all her things were at the clinic.  
  
Dr. Diggers nodded. "I'll meet you there in a few minutes."  
  
"Alright."  
  
His aura flared up and he cast his usual teleportation spell and reached out to touch the emergency spot that Nali kept in her clinic so that the mages could use it teleport directly without the proper visualization required by most teleport spells. He watched as Julia, Nali, Ranma, Sheila, and the rest of the edge guard vanished from sight before turning to the devastated bar and sighed. A simple function of the conclave of mages that he belonged to was to help out those people that he could, when he could. This was part of their normal activities, though there was usually an assigned group the went around and cleaned things up. Since he was here and it had involved someone under his care he decided to help out, he flared his aura again and weaved a spell he had cast thousands of times and watched as the bar slowly reassembled itself.   
  
Burn and charred boards slowly returned to normal as all the pieces reassembled themselves. The broken tables soon followed and within about thirty seconds the whole place was fixed up as good as new. The only thing he didn't bother to replace was the straw that most bars had on the floor since it was such a replaceable item. He waved to the owner of the bar as he looked up from over the counter and vanished before the startled man's eyes. To reappear in Nali's clinic right beside his wife, she looked worried.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"How am I going to explain this to Ranma's father?"  
  
"Life is change, at least Ranma will have time to make the changes he wants now."  
  
"Can you fix it or remove it?"  
  
"No, the curse is the main cause and to cure him of that chaotic magic I would have to kill him and I don't think any of us want to do that."  
  
"THEO!!"  
  
"Sorry dear." Dr. Diggers said and hung his head.  
  
"You had better be!"  
  
Nali walked up. "Excuse me Dr. Diggers, but would you know what kind of curse Ranma has? I forgot to ask when I was told of it."  
  
"It's an Earth Realm curse from a place called 'Jusenkyo', it's a transformation curse that forces him to turn into a girl with a splash of cold water."  
  
"Well I suggest you take him to the side within a few months and begin teaching him how to cast some magic because that curse is playing havoc with his aura and will soon be to much for him to control consciously."  
  
Dr. Diggers blinked, he hadn't noticed anything of the kind when he examined the boy a week or so earlier. "What do you mean?"  
  
"His curse has, along with whatever was done to his aura has forced them to combine. This is usually a good thing, but in a rare few cases that I know of it has caused certain side effects and that poor boy is suffering from two of the worst versions out there."  
  
"May I see or hear these cases your talking about? I was the one that merged his split personality back together and I followed the rules that I had been shown by my instructors."  
  
"It has only been known to have happened three times in the last five thousand years Dr. Diggers and I am only one of maybe twenty healers that know it it. I'm willing to bet that the wizards council has the knowledge buried in their books somewhere, but it is such a small thing that few would know about it or even care."  
  
Dr. Diggers looked over at Ranma where Nali had lay him out on a bed to rest. "This boy is becoming one contradiction after another. Nothing I term as normal happens around him, if he wants to relax, someone will drop a glass of water on him before he can do anything. If he is doing something normal it suddenly turns into an all out war over something completely weird. A stray comment or action that most people would just ignore, but not when Ranma says or does anything, it all goes to hell."  
  
"His natural aura is full of chaos and out of balance, even you should have noticed that." Nali said. "If he starts to manifest any magic he will be to dangerous to be around unless he can control it, and as soon as possible."  
  
"It's not chaos actually, it is something else that I have never seen in anyone before. It changes every time you look at it."  
  
"It does?" Nali said with some surprise, being surprised twice in one day was pretty rare for her now a days. She had looked several times, but they had all been at the same time. She wandered off to go and do a number of more tests that she didn't usually do unless there were odd circumstances involved. A quick check of what Dr. Diggers had said proved true, now instead of chaos he was radiating pure confidence and waves of wild magic. This was too much, she needed to call in some friends to look at this boy.  
  
**********  
  
The old castle stood upon the land that once belonged to the Demon Venger and could hold three hundred soldiers comfortably. Due to the battles that had taken place there in the past it has seen better days and over a third of it had fallen down or was inhospitable. It was currently being used as a temporary home for the man that had brought about the defeat of Venger. At that very moment there was a group of fighters making their way down one of the long abandoned tunnels. In front of the group was a man dressed in armor, bound from head to foot in magical chains. He was being dragged by a tall man in green and brown armor with long blonde hair and a red headed woman in a cloak.  
  
"Come on Frank, I just did it to help us get home a little faster." Merric whined as Frank and Sheela dragged him down the hall. He was beat up and covered in bruises, his armor was dented and beginning to rust. Behind them walked a tired group of figures that had seen better days.  
  
"You sold us out to Tiamat, Merric!" Yelled Bob. He had been here a long time and was now approaching twenty years of age and had aged quite well in the last ten years. He and his sister Sheela had traveled over a good portion of Jade in their travels and learned many secrets and had numerous adventures.  
  
"I just want to go home!!" Merric screamed in despair. "She promised to send us home once we dealt with Venger once and for all."  
  
"To bad traitor, we've had enough of your whining over the years." Sheela said as she adjusted the hood on her cloak. The last few weeks had been some of the worst they had ever had since being brought to this world.  
  
An older man in a green wizards robe followed the group at a slower pace. "Indeed, I had not thought you capable of doing anything like this before Merric, I'm disappointed in you."  
  
"Tiamat is nearly as bad and in some cases worse than Venger, she is always attacking us for no reason."  
  
"She keeps her promises, we would have been home by now if you hadn't stopped me from killing Venger." Merric yelled back.  
  
"Would you Cavalier?"  
  
"Aghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!" Merric screamed and would have ran if Frank and Dinna wouldn't have been holding his arms. "Don't do that you bloated little midget!!"  
  
Standing behind the green robed mage was a short man, about two or three feet tall and wearing a red and white robe. He was bald on the top of his head, but had hair along the sides that hung down to his shoulders. "Venger and Tiamat are enemies, but you keep Venger busy and on his toes most of the time. Your little plan would have had all of you dead, because once Tiamat was done with you she would have had no more reasons to keep you around and would have disposed of you."  
  
"What would you like for us to do with him Dee'em?" The green robed one asked.  
  
"Oh hello Presto, how are things going with you?"  
  
"DON'T CALL ME PRESTO!!! I'm almost twenty six as it is and you still insist upon calling me by that idiotic name!!"  
  
"Alright, then what would you like me to a call you?" Dee'em said with a forming sweat drop.   
  
"Preston the Great." Preston said, posing proudly.  
  
"Um...yeah, okay." Dee'em muttered as he turned back to Frank and Sheela. "I think you two should put the Cavalier in his room, it has been prepared for him."  
  
"Yes sir." Frank said and dragged the struggling Merric off.  
  
"How are you girls doing?"  
  
"Good sir, just surviving and having a little fun." Sheela said with a shrug.  
  
"I've joined up with a traveling circus. Frank asked me to come help him with this so that Merric wouldn't be able to cause us much trouble." Sheela said. "I should be getting back to, we have a small tour to start pretty soon."  
  
"All the luck to you then, remember to visit the next time you get a chance to."  
  
Sheela turned and strutted off, flicking her hair over her shoulder as she went. "Uh huh."  
  
"How is your life going Barbarian?"  
  
Bob shrugged and glared at the man he blamed for ruining his life, folding his muscled arms across his wide chest. "The usual."  
  
"Excellent, well keep up the good work."  
  
"Right." Bob said and walked off with his sister, they had places they needed to be and people to meet now that that idiot Venger was safely put away again. About eight years ago they had finally managed to trick Venger into the void and gotten him out of their hair.   
  
They had all thought they could go home them, but no, Dee'em had then come up with more jobs for them to do as they got more experienced and powerful. Bob had always known that Merric would cause them problems as he got more and more desperate to go home. No one had bothered to tell him that several ways of doing that had been found, but none of them wanted to go back because they had started to live their lives here. It was an open secret that Frank and Dinna were sharing a room and that Preston had increased his magical abilities considerably now that Dee'em was teaching him things.  
  
Dee'em shrugged and wandered off, he had done what he could for the kids over time, but they had grown up too much for him to be of much help to them anymore. He motioned for Preston to follow him as they headed into the study. Things had gotten weird for him lately and he had a feeling that his life was about to get exciting again. He recalled that time a few months before when he had consulted on the strange case of Brianna Diggers and what happened with that. It had been the most fun he'd had in years and he wanted to have a little more, though he did hope that he didn't come so close to dieing again.  
  
"Well boy, what did you think of Merric's plan? Was it viable or completely insane?"  
  
"It had some potential actually."   
  
Dee'em blinked in surprise, his student had always had good instincts for things like this, but he hadn't expected him to say that. "What do you mean?"  
  
"If Merric had taken the time to be a little more subtle instead of telling everyone about his plans he might have gotten away with it and actually gotten sent home. Tiamat would have been more than happy to send Merric home since he doesn't seem to know about the differences in time between this world and the one we all came from."  
  
"Indeed, many dimensions touch this one and yours had a faster time element. If I remember right, by the time I figured that out you and the others had been here too long. Even Bob and the others don't know about the time difference, that for every week you spent here a year would pass on your world."  
  
"Don't worry about it sir, we have all realized that we would be spending the rest of your lives here and moved on."  
  
Dee'em grinned and nodded. "Excellent, then I think it is time for the next lesson..."  
  
As they entered Dee'em's study a light flashed from the corner and they saw a small crystal pulsing with white light. Dee'em walked over and picked it up. With a flare of energy a beam shot out and formed an image of Nali looking down at Dee'em and smiling. Preston had met Nali on a couple of occasions and she looked the same as always. Though it was a little strange for magic users to be in contact like this since it was a bit of a solitary existence.  
  
"Hello Nali, how may I be of help?" Dee'em asked.  
  
"Can you believe I've come across another anomaly?"  
  
"Your kidding?"  
  
"Nope, a human boy this time. I was wondering if you would like to give me a hand in trying to sort him out?"  
  
"What is the nature of this one?"  
  
"He is from the Earth Realm and has acquired a magical transformation curse, there is something about the boy that is making it affect his aura in strange ways that I can't quite figure out. Because of that he is generating a powerful magical aura that could be causing him some trouble in the future. The thing I want you to look at is his aura itself, it changes."  
  
"Changes? Changes colors or in intensity?"  
  
"No, it becomes different forms of energy. The first time I read his aura I did so several times and it kept reading as a powerful form of chaos. Then when I went to check him again a little while later it had altered to to pure confidence. Just now it changed to the purest form of naturally generated energy I've ever seen, even in Ki masters all around Jade."  
  
"That sounds slightly familiar for some reason." Dee'em said as he started to pace back and forth in front of the image. He turned to Preston and pointed to a book on a nearby shelf. "Grab down that old black book from the top shelf there, the old one that has the lock on it."  
  
"Yes sir."   
  
Dee'em took the book and flipped through it for about twenty pages or so before stopping on a page and reading something. "Here we are. Nali what kind of transformation is this curse?"  
  
"Shape change."  
  
"No, no, what does he turn into?"  
  
"He changes sex, turning into a girl."  
  
"Go and ask Bugie about the legend of the 'Shi Hanna'."  
  
"What is that?"  
  
"Bugie is a master mage of Council and one of it's historians. He will have the full story of the Shi Hanna. Your patient is displaying one of the signs this book tells us to look out for so that we can prepare for his coming."  
  
"I have Dr. Diggers here, would he have knowledge on that legend?"  
  
"Dr. Diggers is also one of the council, but he specializes in Aura Magic. You can ask him, but I think your best bet would be Bugie."  
  
"Thank you, will you be coming here any way?"  
  
"I'll be there in a couple of days, I want to teach my student a little first."  
  
"Of course, I had forgotten that you had taken on a student. I'll see you in a couple of days then."  
  
"Until then, good bye Mistress Nali." Dee'em said with a smirk as the crystal in his had flared and darkened back to normal.  
  
"The Shi Hanna, Master?"  
  
"None of that now Preston, it is time for your to deal with your next lesson."  
  
"Yes sir." Preston said.  
  
"Excellent! Then let's begin." Dee'em said. "Go and get me some tea." **  
  
**********  
  
Ranma gasped as he opened his eyes and launched himself out of bed and doing a flip right over several peoples heads and landing in a combat crouch looking aroud for the girl that he had been fighting. It would have been pretty impressive, if Nali hadn't stripped him of his clothing during her exam and left him in only his colored boxers. Several of the Edge Guard were there and applauded Ranma's jump while Sheila gaped at him from her bed where she was talking with her brother Gar. It was her first time getting a good look at Ranma's muscled chest and subtle power, it didn't hurt that his boxers fit him perfectly and left nothing to the imagination. It was a sight she liked, something Tirga noticed as well and glared at Ranma from where he was sitting on the other side of Sheila.  
  
"Huh?" Ranma said as he relaxed and looked around, where was that girl in the revealing armor?  
  
Nali walked up and guided him back to his bed with a grin. "No need for that Ranma, you still need to rest for at least the rest of the day before performing acrobatics like that."  
  
"Your that doctor, Nabo something, right?" Ranma asked in confusion as his mind caught up to the change in scene and circumstances.  
  
"I'm the Healer Nali and I own this clinic, yes." Nali said.  
  
Ranma looked a little funny as he blushed a little and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about that, I couldn't remember your full name."  
  
Nali smiled and nodded. "That's alright, you just need to get a few hours of rest. When Mrs. Diggers comes back from visiting a friend she said you would be ready to go, I'll have your clothes returned to you then." She said and walked over to check on Sheila to see how she was coming along. The weapon that had taken her out was a magical one and her healing was a lot slower than it normally would have been.  
  
"Clothes?" Ranma asked himself and look down at his boxers and yelped. Diving under the covers of the bed, but not before everyone saw him turn bright red. "Someone could have said something."  
  
"Why? I enjoyed the show!" Sheila called out with a laugh that set off Cheetah.  
  
"Agreed!" Cheetah said, kind of wishing it had been Stripe standing there in his underwear.  
  
"Now calm down girls, we have to keep him here to for a little while yet to complete some tests. We don't need him running away just when we are beginning to go through some of them." Nali said with a smirk.  
  
"Okay Nali." Sheila said with a smirk and innocent act.  
  
"...but what about us Sheila?" Tirga asked from a nearby bed. He flexed his muscles and smirked.  
  
"What about you?" She asked with a snort.  
  
"Hah! Shot down again Tirga!" Thropan laughed. He was one of the few Edge Guard that Ranma hadn't met yet as he peaked out from under his blanket. What he saw was a black furred werecat that reminded him of a panther on the prowl for something, he figured it would be safer if he stayed under the covers a little longer. His life was just a little to weird at times and he didn't even know why this was.  
  
"Ah...shot through the heart by my one true love!" Tirga called out, pretending to die while in bed and falling over Sheila in a lude way.  
  
He sighed in contentment as he lay his head somewhere he shouldn't have, Sheila growled at him and sent him flying through a nearby wall head first. She glared at where the pervert had landed and turned to look over at the Ranma's bed with a weird look on her face, glad that he was still hiding under the covers. "You can come out Ranma, it was only a joke, we didn't mean anything by it." She called out.  
  
"Yeah right." Ranma called back from under the blanket. He had been gaining a little control over the Neko-ken lately, but being in a room full of werecreatures was a bit much for him than he had expected. It went against all his instincts to come out from under the blanket and confront them, they were too cat like for his tastes. He was a bit baffled why his feelings on cats and werecats kept going from one extreme to another and it was irritating.  
  
Sheila sighed and nodded silently while her brother Garfield looked on with more than a little surprise, an unwritten question on his face. His sister had been pinning after Tirga for some time now, for her to suddenly start to ignore him in favor of another was quite an accomplishment, and even more surprising for it to be over a meer human. He wondered what this Ranma had done to attract his sister's attention like this and decided to look into the situation a little more. As far as he could tell this Ranma wasn't all that different from any other human fighter they had ever met, a little on the weak side and painfully slow by his terms. He had caught the tail end of that battle between him and Hanza as he was beat up with a simple haste spell, there had to be something else here that he was missing.  
  
"Let it lie for now Gar." Julia said as she sat down beside him.  
  
"But why Master Julia, he doesn't seem like a good match for my sister."   
  
"...and Tirga is?"  
  
"Well he is a werecat at least..."  
  
"It's not like you to be against a human fighter?"  
  
"Just him, because my sister is interested in him. I can see it in her eyes Master, she gives her heart away to freely and if he was to break it I would have to avenge her honor."  
  
Julia snorted. "Your sister is safe in Ranma's hands Gar, of all my students he is the least active in certain areas. His father taught him to be a Martial Artist and nothing more, he had no idea what a relationship between a man and a woman means yet. He has read about it in books and watched some things on TV, but actual relationships are a complete mystery to him."  
  
Gar frowned. "That makes it even worse..."  
  
"So you don't think that Sheila could defend herself against him if it was needed?"  
  
"I don't trust him." Gar said and folded his arms.  
  
"Your just being stubborn." Julia chided.  
  
"Yep and I will not back down until he proves himself worthy of the love she wants to give him."  
  
"I'll talk to him, but for now you have nothing to worry about since we will be leaving for Brod's Tower in the morning."   
  
"That is for that special training you were telling me about, the one that needed an escape proof room for at least tree weeks?"  
  
Julia nodded. "I is the main reason we came to Jade in the first place, he needs to complete the training he started under his father and repair the damage done to his soul."  
  
Gar just grunted. "I'm still going to watch him around my sister."  
  
"You do that, but I think you have nothing to worry about."  
  
"We'll see, Master Julia."  
  
**********  
  
In another room in the clinic Nali was having tea with Dr. Diggers, they were discussing the odd situation with Ranma. Nali was looking a little stressed, though she still did what she could to look like she was as calm as ever. This was a case of something she had never encountered before and she wanted to tread carefully or Ranma could be hurt if she did the wrong thing, the old knowledge had been told of was so vague and hard to understand that she didn't want to jump to conclusions. She stirred her tea as she walked over and sat down across from Dr. Diggers and sighed a little as she decided to get right to the point. "Is there anything you can tell me about the Shi Hanna?"  
  
Dr. Diggers blinked and looked thoughtful as he considered the question, he hadn't considered that angle, it was a big possibility too. "That old Legend?"  
  
"Yes, I want to know if there is any validity to what Dee'em told me."  
  
"I hadn't even thought about that old legend in regards to Ranma, but he fits some of the requirements doesn't he?" Dr. Diggers mussed to himself and rubbed his chin, that was the thing that had been on the tip of his tongue for so long now. He wondered how he could have missed it before this. "What do you know about the Legend?"  
  
"Not much really, just what I was able to get out of Dee'em a little while ago, he was the one that suggested it in first place."  
  
"The Shi Hanna is a being out of legend, he was neither good or evil, just a figure shrouded in mystery that helped people at one point while at the same time doing unpredictable things to others. It is rumored that he is to be reborn one day and lay waste to the entire realm of Jade, forcing the retreat of thousands of races."  
  
"That sounds horrible..."  
  
Dr. Diggers laughed a little and looked at Nali. "The Shi Hanna is just a legend that has been corrupted over time, only Bugie would have any knowledge on that Legend, he has read all the books in the great library. He has even accessed the Library of Time upon occasion to look up things that were thought lost on the subject, he has been doing so for the last hundred years or more with all kinds of old legends and mysteries."  
  
"Dee'em also suggested I go to Bugie, but I was hoping that you would know more about the Legend before I did that."  
  
Dr. Diggers frowned and shook his head. "I only know the basics of the Legend Nali, I'm not sure how much help I'll be."  
  
"Well alright, then we also need to talk about Ranma's other propblem."  
  
"Hmmm...?"  
  
"We have to stop those magical surges that the boy is going to start going through pretty soon, he must begin magic training."  
  
"I know, but his style of magic is hard to pin down because of his aura."  
  
"Just teach him the basics and a couple of spells, he doesn't need anymore than that to get the surges under control."  
  
"I know..."  
  
"...but you like to do something all the way through without stopping, even training Ranma in magic."  
  
"That's it exactly."  
  
"What about having Brod do it then?"  
  
"No, Ranma's training is my responsibility since he is under my care while he is with my family."  
  
"Then I would like for you to start once you are done at Brod's Lookout."  
  
"Won't that be a little soon? He will be going through some very dangerous training while there."  
  
Nali nodded as she recalled what Julia had in mind for the boy. "No, I think it is very necessary for him to go through the training as soon as possible."  
  
"Alright, I'll begin as soon as Ranma recovers from the training."  
  
"That's all I can ask of you Dr. Diggers, he needs that training or he could end up killing someone when he loses control."  
  
"I don't think he is that dangerous Nali, he figured out how to use his Ki in less than two weeks and has nearly doubled his speed and power under my wife's training."  
  
"Dr. Diggers there is something about that boy that is beyond what a normal human is capable of. Take this last fight of his, he took on an opponent that was using powerful magic to back up her up..."  
  
"...and he lost."  
  
"No, he lost because he underestimated her and didn't have the proper understanding of magic and how it works. Even I could feel the Ki in the air that he was using when he figured out how to do that speed punching technique that the witnesses described him doing, after Hanza cast her haste spell. Every mage and Ki user in the city had to have felt something when he did that."  
  
**********  
  
This morning Julia had announced that they were going to head over to Brod's lookout and had all their stuff sent on ahead. Ranma had been excited about this all morning and he had gladly helped everyone gather what would be needed for the trip. Then had to stand back and watch as everyone but him and Julia had teleported to the Lookout. She had grinned at his bemused look and handed him his weighted pack and told him they would be taking the scenic rout, he had to been in bed and needed to pick up his strength for the trial ahead. The scenic rout turned out to be a leasurly run through the woods, only forty miles from the Hamlet, but Ranma didn't mind all that much and it gave him a chance to stretch his legs.   
  
About an hour later the two of them were speeding along one of the regular roads that led out of the valley. Ranma wasn't really thinking about things, just concentrating on keeping up with Julia as they raced down the road. He had to admit that his control had taken a considerable jump lately, even more than what he had been able to do while he was at Jusenkyo. His muscles were working over time and he didn't even feel the strain as his Ki pumped through his legs and allowed him to keep up his incredible pace. Just ahead of him Julia was leading the way and very slowly increasing the pace of the run to push Ranma to his limits.  
  
"How are you doing Ranma?"  
  
"Fine." He yelled back as she started to pull away from him.  
  
"Then keep up and don't complain, Student!!" She yelled back.  
  
The road seemed to blur around them as they ran, taking curves and sharp turns at speeds that would have wiped out a car easily. Julia just grinned and picked up the pace a little more and decided to take a short cut, she angled through a nearby field and sped down one of the open spaces between crop rows. She didn't seem to have any problems, but Ranma found himself having to dodge leaves and large rocks, at the sped the was going the plants were cutting his shirt sleeves to ribbons and the rocks threatened to take him out permanently. To navigate properly he had to concentrate even harder to make sure he didn't make a mistake.  
  
Then things got weird as Julia streaked out of the field and suddenly jumped a wide ditch that seemed to come out of nowhere. She seemed to sail across it like a catapult shot and landed with ease on the other side and skidded to a halt to see how Ranma would react. He shot out of the field and was upon the ditch before he had a chance to do anything about it and lost his concentration as his feet left the ground. A trail of dust trailed behind him as he sailed out, quickly losing momentum and hit face first into the far wall of the ditch. He tumbled down the side and landed in the water running along the bottom of the ditch with a heavy splash and gave out a female squawk of surprise and flailed around for several seconds.  
  
Julia just blinked and started to laugh as Ranma crawled out of the wet and muddy water and glared at her teacher. "That was a dirty trick!"  
  
"Dirty trick?" Julia laughed. "Who's the one covered in mud?"  
  
Ranma snarled and started to make her way up the side of the ditch, but half way up the side she slipped and tumbled down into the water again. She rolled into a sitting position and sighed as mud dripped off her face and dragged herself to her feet. With a little jump she was in the air and landing on the edge of the ditch, she shook her head to get as much of the mud and water out of her hair. She looked down at her body and cursed Jusenkyo's existence once again. Living with the curse was pretty easy and she had no problems with that, it was the complete loss of her manhood that bothered her whenever the damned thing activated.  
  
She shrugged herself out of her back pack and tossed it to the ground with a grunt, happy to get that lead weight off her back. "I don't like to be wet and muddy, is there a river or something around here where I can get cleaned up Master Julia?"  
  
"Sure, it's a little off our course, but I can understand the reaction." Julia said with a grin and nudged Ranma. "Now have you been practicing in your female form all that much?"  
  
Ranma sighed. "Just basic forms to adjust to the difference in balance and movement."  
  
Julia frowned and looked Ranma over, it was painfully clear that Ranma hadn't taken much time to do much with his female form. The large breasts were going to be a problem as they ran to the spot she was thinking of. She thought about it for a few seconds and decided that Ranma needed to take care of that little problem. She dropped her pack and opened it up to pull out a long wrap around bandage that she had used on a number of occasions for helping her friends when they had broken or cracked ribs. "Take your shirt off Ranma, you need to take care of a problem."  
  
"What problem?" Ranma asked as she looked down at her breasts.  
  
Reaching out, Julia tapped one of them and made it bounce around a little. "Your too big up here, the run I have planned for you will leave you in a lot of needless pain by the time were done so we need to restrain them from bouncing as you move."  
  
"Huh?" Ranma said. Then she shrugged, so far Julia and her daughters had explained a good number of things to her about being female. This must have been one of those little things they hadn't thought to mention to her at the time. Ranma unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it off to toss it to the ground in a muddy splat.   
  
"Now take off the undershirt Ranma."  
  
"You want me topless?" She asked in surprise.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Um...okay, whatever you want." Ranma said as she pulled her tank top off and let her breasts free.  
  
Julia frowned at her student for a second before pulling out her canteen and pouring it over Ranma's chest and back to clean a bit of the mud off. Then she took the bandage and had Ranma lift her arms while she wrapped it around Ranma's chest to restrain her prominent chest. It only took a few minutes and Julia made it tight enough so that things wouldn't move all that much. "Now put your tank top back on, that should keep you from injuring yourself while we run. Just wring your shirt out and tie it to your pack, we can take care it in a little while."  
  
After that it only took Ranma a few seconds to do as she was told and took off after Julia. At first Ranma was a bit confused as to why she had been wrapped up the way she was, then the differences of this body started to become apparent. Her hips moved in different ways, the lower gravity made her adjust her running form to reduce the strain on her leg and back muscles. Her breasts were moving all over the place too, but nowhere as much as they should have been, the sudden realization of what Julia had meant hit her and she nearly went down in shock.  
  
She grumbled to herself as their pace increased, this was just one more thing she didn't want to know about the female body. Then she shrugged mentally, it was just one more indignity she would have to get used to as time went on. They ran out of the field and made their way cross country for about half an hour, Julia continued her original plan and ran Ranma through an improvised obstacle course. They jumped several more ditches and dodged around the occasional tree that popped up until the careened into the forest at break neck speed.   
  
By this time Ranma was getting used to the different way this body moved and easily keeping up with Julia. To liven the run up she spent several minutes in the trees jumping from one branch to branch to another, Julia was right beside her for most of the way. Eventually Julia motioned for them to change course and they headed deeper and deeper into the woods. After about twenty minutes Ranma started to hear a sound the she hadn't heard in a very long time, the sound of a water fall. They burst out of the trees and flipped a few times to land at the edge of a large pond.   
  
On the far side of the pond was a small water fall, it stood over seven feet and looked like the perfect place to get all this mud off her body. Most of it had dried while they were running so she was in even worse condition than what she had started out in. Ranma dropped her pack and wadded into the pond fully clothed and swam her way over to the water fall while Julia watched. She found a rock out crop just under the water and stood up on that, the water was just like taking a cold shower and she spent a few minutes washing the caked mud out of her heair and clothes.  
  
At the edge of the pond Julia watched as Ranma cleaned up, but froze as her danger sense started to tingle. She turned to look into the woods just as ten scruffy looking men stepped into view and looked the two of them over lecherously. Julia's eyes narrowed as she looked them over and recalled the day before when Brit had told her about all the bandits in the area that the Edge Guard had been trying to get rid of. It had been a long time since she had been in a situation like this and knew that getting away would be pretty easy, but it went against her oath as an Armsmaster to do so.   
  
Ranma looked up from her position under the water fall and noticed the men stepping out of the woods. She could see several more staying within the trees while the others moved to surround them, a smirk formed on her face as a plan formed. Most of the dirty looking men had swords out and looked ready to use them, Ranma could see a bit of dried blood on most of the weapons as well and knew that these guys were not to be taken lightly. They had either hurt or killed with those weapons and proved to her that they needed to be taken down. She also noticed that they didn't move like trained soldiers and fighters, this lowered their threat level enough to make her consider taking them all down.  
  
"Hello beautiful ladies, it's so nice for you to enter our forest and offer your bodies up for our use." Said one of the ones off to the left.   
  
Ranma frowned and narrowed her eyes at him, marking him out as the first to go down, she kept her mouth shut for the moment. She had been similar situations with her father when people had managed track the old thief down from time to time. With folded arms she started to draw in Chi from all around her to augment her speed and power, these idiots had no idea what they had just set themselves up for.  
  
"All of you had better get out of here before you..." Julia started, deciding to give them a warning before this got out of hand. She could feel Ranma drawing in insane amounts of the Chi from around them.   
  
"Shut up bitch, you aren't allowed to talk, just strip out of those clothes and get to severicing my men or we'll for you to do it." The leader snapped. His men snickered and nodded, eyeing the two girls with total lust written on their faces.  
  
"I DON'T THINK SO!!" Yelled a voice from on top of the waterfall. Ranma blinked in surprise and spun around, she hadn't felt or heard anything approaching her.  
  
On top of the fall, standing on a rock out cropping was Thropan, the black panther werecat. He was one of the members of the Edge guard Ranma hadn't had a chance to meet properly and only seen in passing while at Nali's clinic. She glared up at the black furred man above her and shrugged, at least she knew he was on their side. Thropan had a strange staff in his hand and was wearing his Edge Guard uniform.  
  
"Damned Edge Guard lackey!" The bandit leader yelled. "Men, take the ladies and prepare them, the rest of you kill him and get him out of our hair."   
  
Julia's eyebrow rose a little at the well disciplined group that surged forward in two formations. about seven of them headed straight for Thropan while the rest moved towards her and Ranma. Her sword was out in a blink of an eye and she had knocked two of the bandits out before they had time to even think of avoiding her attack, two others went down hard from a well placed kick. From there the sword came into play, they didn't stand a chance of defeating one of the Armsmasters of Jade and they were about to learn just why she held that title.  
  
Several others ran out into the water to get Ranma, the lust crazed looks on their faces made her shudder, but an anger welled up in her that could not be denied. The bandits were a bit surprised when the girl didn't run and thought they had an easy target on their hands, then they got to within two touching distance of her. Ranma's expression turned murderous and a bright silver aura flared around her body and she exploded into motion, fists swinging and feet flying, Ranma overwhelmed them in a blink of an eye and sent them all flying back into he forest with cries of pained shock. Most of them hit trees and collapsed to the ground where they didn't get back up again. Those that tried found that they had broken bones to deal with and their eyes locked on Ranma as she stood under the water fall in a cloud of steam as her aura vaporized the water before it hit her.  
  
Thropan the Edge Gaurd werepanther jumped off the rock as the last of the bandits attacked and tossed out several round disks. The bandits tried to swat them out of the air with their swords, having learned that this particular threat tended to use unorthodox weapons. This proved to be a mistake the Thropan had known they would make and use it against them. The instant the blades touched the disks they explodes into a thick gel like substance the covered them completely and hardened. This took out all but two of the Bandits, the leader and one of his men, so he flipped off the top of the waterfall and tossed out several more of the disks. Unfortunately Ranma's little light show distracted him and threw off his aim and he missed completely.  
  
The bandit leader cursed as he nearly slipped off the falls and glared at the werepanther as it landed near Julia. He had been leading long enough to know when to back off and cut his losses and took off into the forest before anyone could stop him, only his partner was able to follow him and he gave them a look that promised a lot of pain if he ever came across the group again. Thropan looked over at the cute red headed girl and blinked as she suddenly turned male while suspended above the water, it was Ranma.   
  
He blinked in surprise. "Huh?"  
  
Ranma relaxed before he had a chance to understand what had happened and cried out when he dropped back into the water with another squawk of surprise. She resurfaced a few seconds later and shook the water out of her hair and growled as she waded her way back to where Julia was standing with Thropan. There was a pile of tied up bodies all around her, groaning in pain. She even noticed the one's she had send flying into the trees, a part deep in her mind still wondering how in the world she had done such a thing.  
  
"Ranma? Is that you?" Thropan asked in shock as the cute red head walked out of the water.  
  
"Yeah, I've got this odd curse that turns me into a girl with cold water."  
  
"Incredible, what kind of magic would do such a thing like that?" He wondered, silently going over his magical weapon knowledge to see if there was anyway to duplicate such a feat.  
  
"I just have to get my hands on some hot water and change back."   
  
"What did you do to those guys Ranma, I've never seen you manifest a silver aura before and nothing strong enough to do what you just did."  
  
"I'm not sure, they attacked and suddenly got really angry at them and wasn't about to just let them have their way with me. Then everything went silver." Ranma said with a shrug as she pulled some drier clothing out of her pack. This had already been a long day and she didn't want to spend it being wet for the rest of the run, so without a care in the world that Thropan was standing there she stripped and changed clothes. He fainted when she dropped her pants and stood there in all her glory. Julia just shook with suppressed laughter and wondered what her student would do next, she hadn't had this much fun in years.  
  
About half an hour later Thropan, who wouldn't look Ranma in the eye anymore, used a magical gate device to teleport him and all his prisoners back to the jail house in Seer's Hamlet. Julia and Ranma waited a few minutes to make sure everything was in place and resumed their run. Ranma was back in male form and quickly got back into the pace of things as they ran the rest of Julia's obstacle course. It was nearing noon by the time Ranma and Julia topped a hill and saw the small structure that only a hand full of people ever visited more than once in a life time. It was a building that looked like an observatory from earth, but was a little smaller and built right into the side of a cliff and surrounded on all sides by woods.   
  
Ranma wasn't quite sure what the place was exactly, but Julia had told him that she was friends with the Troll that ran the place and that he had agreed to let them use one of the special rooms at his look out to help him complete his final training. Ranma wasn't sure what to think of all this though, on one hand he was going to finally get a chance to get rid of the cursed Neko-ken once and for all. He had been slowly using the meditation techniques for almost a month now and he felt ready for this. Then there was the other side of the question, he was nervous about this because of what it involved. He would have to skirt his madness and over come it before he could master the Neko-ken completely. Before he took up the special meditation exercises the mere sight of a cat of any size would send him fleeing in fear for his life. Now after mastering them he could keep his control for the few precious seconds needed to get away or deal with the problem. Even the werecats of this strange world didn't give him much of a problem anymore, though they did make him edgy. Britanny Diggers had helped him start to get over his fear of them and Sheila had also help further things along by being nice to him when he was lost. He didn't hold that little scene at the clinic against her since he had been in the wrong, though he could have done without being hit through a wall for it.  
  
That reminded him of the fight he had with the girl in the weird armor, it had been one of his most embarrassing fights in a long time. Even the one over the Jusenkyo springs hadn't been as bad as this, at least there he had known what he was getting into even if he didn't like the results. This was a whole new story and he had spent a little time thinking about it to determine what had happened to him, just where how he had screwed up. No matter how much he thought about it, or how he had fought that girl, he found that he would have lost the fight because of the magic involved. It disgusted him that he had no way to fight against a magic user, it was like cheating to him and there seemed to be no way he could have done anything about it. Master Julia had told him upon a couple of occasions that she had fought and defeated several magic users, it just took a different way of fighting that what he wasn't trained in, but that was something that she planned to correct over the next few months while they trained.   
  
With the Neko-ken mastered and some training from Master Julia and Dr. Diggers, Ranma hoped he would be able to get out of this increasingly bad situation he was in. He had lost nearly every fight he had been in over the last few weeks and it galled him to no end what kind of failure he was turning into. At this point he would have gladly accepted a beating from his father for being so stupid and clumsy. Julia had beaten him with ease, Daichi had taken him down twice in a row and made him regret each of them in ways that had affected him to the core of his being, and that Hanza chick had easily used his lack of magic knowledge against him, all of them had beaten him and severely hurt his pride in his abilities. He had always been told he had to be the best of the best, only to find lately that he had so far to go that he was next to useless at protecting everyone around him.   
  
Ten years in hell, training with his father, the daily beatings, always pushing himself beyond the normal limits just to survive the next bit of training with his old man and it had been for nothing? Then to find out that he wasn't even close to reaching his goal of being the best was something he didn't want to think about either, it meant he had failed. The old man would kill him for that when he found out and quite possibly do something drastic. He was glad that the Diggers seemed to think differently about what had happened and had taken a little time to explain what the differences his new forms meant, though he was still in the dark about a good number of other things that had been hinted at. Like that crap earlier when Julia had bound his female chest up to keep him from bouncing all over place, he was just glad it had been with the bandage and not a real bra. The would have been humiliating.   
  
Ranma was beginning to think that he would have to do something drastic to get out of this slump he was in, but he wasn't all that sure what he could do except continue to train. He hadn't lost a fight to anyone since he turned thirteen over three years ago and he had been in dozens of battles before he was tricked by Master Julia because of his pride. Even his father had started to win one out of every ten fights against him, but his failure was beginning to make him think about some things he had always taken for granted. Then Julia had started to train him in ways that had fascinated him and brought out just as much skill and power in him as his father's ways, but didn't bring him to the brink of death or permanent disability. Now he was here at the top of a hill with just a few short miles away from the place he had been trying to reach for weeks now.  
  
"Were almost there Ranma." Julia said as she jogged up beside him and looked out over the valley where the Lookout was located.  
  
Ranma nodded. "I'm looking forward to this."  
  
"I should hope so, you've been working toward it for some time now."  
  
"I just hope I'm ready."  
  
"You are, you just need to stay focused and work your way through it until you succeed."  
  
"I won't fail, I always win in the end!"  
  
"Cut the crap Ranma, you're usually more talkative when you train and you've been pretty silent since we left the waterfall. What's on your mind?"  
  
"I was just reviewing the past few weeks in my head."  
  
"What did you come up with?"  
  
Ranma frowned and looked away as he took of at a run.  
  
"He's getting worse, I hope this training is successful or it could be very bad for him mentally, he already starting to get more and more depressed when he thinks we're not looking." Julia muttered to herself as she moved to follow the sprinting Ranma. Even after forty miles of running Ranma was still using his Ki to keep up a speed that would have done a car justice. Julia kept her doubts to herself as she picked up the speed to catch up with him and moved to pass him, but his competitive spirt reared its head and he tried to make sure she didn't do that.  
  
Julia knew that she could have moved faster, but this was for Ranma's training and he didn't seem to understand that certain fighters held back at certain things, something he would have learn if he was to ever become a teacher. She hoped that a little competition would help him get back on track and more confidence in himself, his self confidence had taken several blows over the last few weeks. Theo had started to help him after the curse and his loss to Hanza hadn't done much help either. She was tempted tell him just how much progress he had made over the last few weeks, but figured it would have more weight when he realized it on his own.  
  
They arrived a few minutes later and skidded to a halt by the large door to Brod's Lookout. Julia smirked as Ranma grinned in happiness, she had cut the race as closely as possible and turned a near win into a tie. Ranma didn't seem to mind though as he took a few seconds to cool down. She stepped to the door, knocked, and waited for it was opened a few seconds later by a huge thing that glared down at her. With a smile she hugged the ugly thing, much to Ranma's shock.   
  
"Hi Brod, how are things going for you?"   
  
"Things are going well, Master Julia."  
  
"Where is everyone?"  
  
"Inside waiting for you to arrive, everything has been set up and prepared to the the information that you send along."  
  
"Excellent." Julia said and grabbed Ranma's arm and pulled him over. "This is your guest, Ranma Saotome."  
  
Ranma looked up at the monster before him in shock, he had yet to meet a true monster while here on Jade and this thing came the closest yet. Brod was almost ten foot tall and hunched over like a monkey on huge limbs filled with muscles that looked like they would allow him to shatter stone in his bare hands. He was bald and had a craggy face complete with a large nose and square chin. "Um...hi?"  
  
"Sorry Brod, I didn't get a chance to tell him you were a troll." Julia explained.  
  
"Ah, that explains it." Brod said with a nod. "Don't worry young one, I am a Troll Archmage and tend to spend more time studding than anything else. I'm one of few of my kind that has risen above the level of a mindless beast and bid you welcome to my home."   
  
Ranma shrugged, when one was around the Diggers long enough they tended to be stranger than some of the possible monsters he might encounter. "No problem, you just caught me by surprise."   
  
They made their way inside and Brod knuckled his way along with them as he led them through the small structure until they reached a natural cave with one side of it sealed off with a pair of large doors. Ranma saw that Dr. Diggers, Nali, Brittany, and Sheila were waiting for them to show up. If he remembered right, most of the Edge Gurad were out on patrol and Sheila had come along since she wouldn't be allowed to go back to work for a day or two. He didn't see Charlotte though, but quickly forgot about her as he happened to glance into another room and paled. It had about a dozen caged cats of varying sizes and shapes just waiting for use, it sent a shudder down his spine as he unconsciously edged away from them.  
  
Dr. Diggers stepped forward as they approached and opened one of the doors to let them see the small room on the other side. Julia could tell that it was similar to the room she used to use when she had been forced to travel here once a year for over a decade when she under that curse that kept her away from her family. She turned to look at Ranma and saw a bit of fear in his eyes for what he was about to do and couldn't really blame him in any way. A quick look inside showed that the walls had a number of spells cast on them and a large spell symbol carved right into the floor. There were a couple of small alcoves in three places along the walls where Brod had removed some special lamps and been replaced by torches.  
  
"It looks perfect Brod, were there any problems getting it ready?"   
  
"Not at all Master Julia, it only took about an hour to get it ready and Dr. Diggers has been inside for most of the morning in preparation for what is to happen."   
  
Julia turned to Ranma. "Well, do you want to rest after that run or get right to it?"  
  
"Let's get this over with, I'm not looking forward to this and the quicker it's done the better." Ranma said. It wasn't like him to admit things like that, but he'd learned that Master Julia didn't care about his pride and insisted that he tell her the truth.  
  
"Then get in there and take a seat, the door won't open until you pass this or you die as per the book's insistence."  
  
Ranma nodded and controlled the growing fear. "Let's go for it."  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
  
* This is one of those pointless Akane like moments where the physically impossible becomes possible for the sake of a sight gag. Sheila's werecat form isn't strong enough to do this, but her human form is. ^_^  
  
** I've altered the names of the original crew of the Dungeon's and Dragons cartoon characters in the ways that Fred Perry has or would have. He has used Dee'em in one of his comics already, I just decided to use the rest of the crew in this short segment. There is a possibility of them returning if I find a use for them and enough people request it. The only names I didn't change were Venger and Tiamat. 


	5. Chapter 05

Notes - Finally an update for this story, it's only been three months ^_^;; Well for once I have a bit of good news, because of the length of time I have lots and lots done. I'll save a bit for the end and explain a bit more on that little subject.   
  
  
  
**********  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 05  
Cory D. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c) 2002  
**********  
  
Seer's Hamlet, as mentioned before, was located in a kind of sub-space pocket maintained by magic so that the grassy plane around it wouldn't be destroyed by the cities very existence and had been like that for a very long time. It was a city like any other and had a governing body that made decisions for everyone, being wizards, these people tended to be quite knowledgeable about things. When people broke the laws of Seer's Hamlet they tended to be judged by a fair standard, but due to past experience they had been force to adopt certain ways to punish criminal behavior.  
  
They didn't like it most of the time, but criminals didn't respond to well to magical curses and spells to keep them in line. There was always an evil wizard around that could remove or alter the punishment over time, this had forced the city to make certain compromises when dealing with law breakers. There were all types of criminals, from the small time thief to the professional assassin and the city had to deal with all types. Those criminals who proved to be impossible to change they tended to exile with magic that would kill them if they entered the area again, though this was rarely done. There were only five people on record that had ever received this kind of punishment and they had never been heard from again.   
  
The next level of criminal was the repeat offender, those that just wouldn't change their way of life even if it killed them. Most thieves fell into this category and this was why a special punishment had been created just for them and as wizards with access to lots of magic this had proven to be pretty effective, though when they were let go most thieves just went back to stealing eventually. The rulers of Seer's Hamlet hated to let these people back into the city, but luckily their idea of punishment was effective enough to keep crime down to a minimum and when the criminals were let go at the end of their sentence they usually left the area.  
  
What was done to them? They were sent to the Mines in the mountains to the west, where they would spend eighteen to twenty hours a day pounding on walls of rock for little to no results. They were treated fairly, but with little or nor freedom to do anything but pound on the wall or they got the lash. This was where our latest victim of the law was being sent and would most likely learn his lesson, thieves were not to be tolerated and most of them were very slippery characters that couldn't be trusted to do much of anything. Sometimes they had interesting uses though and that was why one of them would sometimes be broken out of the mines and put to other uses.  
  
**********   
  
The shadow moved through the tunnels deep in the prison mine with as much care as possible, he had been doing things like this for years and had more practice than anyone else alive. It didn't matter that what he was doing was criminal in nature and would have gotten him placed in a place like this if he ever did get caught. He did it for the thrill and a chance to snub his nose at the established authority, they had ruined his fun more times than he could count and this was the prefect revenge. He grinned as he flowed right by the guard that was standing in the dark passage, the man was taking a perverse pleasure in using his whip on the prisoners that were busy using picks to pound on the walls for little or no progress.  
  
The stone of this mountain had originally been worked by a race of dwarves for several hundred years, but they had the special abilities to work the stone properly. Humans on the other hand could pound on the walls with any manner of tools for months on end and barely make any progress, maybe a foot of stone could be removed. The mines had been used as punishment for several generations, though not the worst place one could go in Jade, they were renown for being hard and demanding work. Few criminals ever returned here though, the guards were cruel, the work back breaking, and being chained to thirty to forty other men who had committed any number of crimes was more dangerous than the mines themselves.  
  
This was the environment that the Shadow like being was moving through and it could do anything it wanted while here. He had entered this particular mine several times before to find certain people, to get information, and to make sure some of the 'guests' didn't leave the place alive. The shadow smiled evilly as it went down to the third level through a special series of hidden tunnels that had been created by the dwarves long before the humans took over the place. He moved through several doors, up and down a series of stair cases and across a long unused bridge that spanned a black pit that the guards used to dump bodies, it was a unique system of justice in his mind and something the guards were more deserving of this hell than half the prisoners themselves.   
  
He took several minutes to cross the huge bridge to make sure there weren't any guards on the other end, they tended to use this place sporadically and used traps instead of guards to protect it. That wasn't something that bothered him in the least, he knew this place better than all the guards combined. Once across the bridge and moving past several of the floor traps he moved into a nearly hidden hallway, this one was used to hold new prisoners for several weeks before they were brought out and placed on the work gangs and literally whipped into shape for the duration of their sentence.  
  
These cells were some of the worst in the prison, the pit cells where newbies were shown just what they had to look forward to if they didn't work with the guards. Those that resisted were brought back down here and left to rot, a death sentence in everyway unless one knew how to survive the place. His target had been here for two days according to the paperwork he'd seen and would be in cell four with several other men. Counting off the doors he quickly reached the fourth one and slipped through the open door. Unlike most of the tunnels he had gone down so far, there were no torches in here to provide light and shadows for him to blend into, this room was pitch black and devoid of the one thing he was looking for.   
  
His eyes shifted into the low light spectrum and instantly told him the pit was had about three feet of water at the bottom and was completely devoid of life. His target wasn't here, this was a first, the guards didn't usually change their habits unless something weird had happened. He had to find the target as soon as possible or things would be bad, he'd already spent about a fourth of his payment before he even began this trip. Cursing under his breath he moved out of the room and started checking the other rooms, these, like the others, were all empty and full of water.  
  
This wasn't good, he knelt down in a shadow for a second to think, then shrugged and moved out of the hallway, the needed to move up one level and see if the target had been placed early. The water suggested that they might have been forced to stop using them for the low risk prisoners like they usually did and placed them right into the gangs. If so, things would be a little harder, but nothing major since this place was nearly escape proof if one didn't have outside help. He raced back across the bridge and up to the next level, the instant he came across the first work gang he grinned, his target was banging a hammer against the wall in a bored way, trying to pass the time.  
  
The Shadow moved forward with purposeful steps, the guards didn't what hit them and his target...fainted.  
  
What a spineless wimp.  
  
**********  
  
One little twist of the wrench and Gina was positive that she would have the Hydroelectric Plant ready for it's first set of testing trials. It was a delicate machine and had to be set up and placed in just such a way to get the most efficient use from flow of the water itself. She moved slowly, silently wishing she had remembered to bring along that Sonic Wrench she had developed a year or so ago after watching a Doctor Who episode. The principle had been elementary, but she had made a much better version that that little dinky thing the Doctor used. There were so many more uses a larger version was capable of doing. She had at least ten of the things back in her lab, but rarely used them out in the field unless she had some specific reason to do so.  
  
Gina's finished tightening the last little bit and sighed, she so liked it when a plan came together. Then she blinked as something at the back of her mind tried to warn her of something...BBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM...and the ground she was kneeling on started to shake, tossing her to the ground as the shock wave moved through the area and kicked up a ton of dust and nearly damaged the Plant. This wasn't a good thing in her opinion and there was only two possible people such a thing could have done such a thing. Gina climbed to her feet and dusted herself off as she looked around.  
  
Off on the other side of the small river she could see a column of smoke rising above the trees. Right where Brianna has set up a small area to work on some of her other projects since at the moment she wasn't needed for work on the Plant. She had helped to move rock and other things out of the way with her explosives, cutting through stone like a hot knife through butter while the bots cleared away the rubble. Until they got the Plant up and running Brianna didn't have much of anything to do and had grown 'bored'.   
  
This was a bad thing, when she got bored she started working on her special projects, things like her Brianna nitro. It was absolutely stable and had ten times the kick of normal nitro, she used the stuff in her Peebo's for when the little AI's exploded. From the looks of things, she had been working on the things again and that spelled trouble. They were already wearing their welcome out with the Amazons and she wanted to be done in as soon as possible. Unfortunately their Hydroelectric plant was being stubborn, it didn't want to go into place like it should and she couldn't find any mistakes in their calculations that pointed to a mistake.  
  
"What did she do now?" Penny asked as she walked up, she had rag in her hand and was using it to wipe her face clean. It looked like she had been to close to some mud, she was covered in the stuff.  
  
"What in the world happened to you?"  
  
"I was installing those safety devices up by the water turbines when the explosion went off, fell off right into the mud below." Penny snapped with an irritated glare at the smoke in the distance.  
  
Gina just blinked and adjusted her glasses. "Oh...um, I'm not sure what happened with Brianna. Her explosion knocked me off my feet too. Luckily I had just finished tightening the large bolts on the Plant, it didn't budge an inch."   
  
"Well that was a stroke of luck, I don't want to have to come back here anytime soon so we need to keep your sister away from the Plant or occupied with something else."  
  
"She's bored and went off to 'play', you know how she is."  
  
"Why isn't she helping you with this?" Penny said and waved at all the stuff that had yet to be installed.  
  
Gina flushed and looked away. "When she got bored she started to try and 'improve' on some of the equipment here and ended up turning a simple piece into something else. I'm not sure what she did, but the emergency power supply went from being gas powered to fission operated and increased the efficiency of the thing by 2000 percent and thousand times more dangerous."  
  
Penny winced. "Didn't she create those Peebes the last time she was bored?"  
  
The name Peebes sent a chill down Gina's back and she shuddered, instantly trying to get the memories of those things out of her head. They were one of Brianna's nastier creations, her idea of a replacement for the bullet, about the size of a large marble, they had limited intelligence and were programmed to take out all the 'bad' guys by slamming into them and exploding. This was good idea on paper, but went bad when put into practice and had caused more harm than any other item Brianna had ever created. Brianna had designed the guns they fired out of to send them out in groups of 2 to 10 and allowed them to go where they wanted after that. The problem was that they when they went after a 'bad' guy they tended to be a bit subjective, they blew up muggers, criminals, jay walkers, shop lifters, people who cussed in public, littered, even Brianna herself for firing them off in the first place and using the to blow up a large section of Seer's Hamlet once. After that they went after themselves, it hadn't been pretty.   
  
"Yeah, they're the reason Brianna didn't go to Jade with mom. She isn't welcome in certain sections of town because of something that her Peebes did the last time she was there."  
  
"You don't think she's working on them again do you?" Penny asked nervously, she had heard about what Brianna had done to Gina's lab one time.  
  
"I would hope not, I made her get rid of all her prototypes and plans a couple of days after she got back from Jade. As far as I know she has been working on her Peebos and couple of other things lately."  
  
"Well grab a fire extinguisher and lets get over there, the Amazons seem to be avoiding the area so we may be the only ones that would help your sister if she is in trouble."  
  
Gina shrugged, she had seen her sister blow herself up so many times that it was almost common place now. Then made their way across the small stream and into the Brianna's camp, at first they couldn't see much, but eventually the wind blew most of the smoke out of the way and they were able to see most of the damage. Brianna was sitting at her worktable covered in black soot with smoke wafting off her hair. She smiled as they came into the area and waved them over.  
  
"Brianna, what in the world happened?!" Penny yelled out as she ran over to the girl.  
  
"Brianna, are you alright?" Gina asked in concern.  
  
She nodded and waved them off. "Yeah I'm fine, I've had worse than this before."   
  
"SO WHAT HAPPENED?!" Gina yelled.  
  
"I was working on my Peebos, adjusting their programming and adding in some special stuff."  
  
"What kind of improvements?" Gina asked nervously.  
  
"Increased intelligence, tactics, and a higher range explosive that can be preset to explode in a certain way." Brianna said with a strange glint in her eye. "I also designed a new and improved version of my Peebochu and built a prototype Peebochu for the fun of it so that I could start and work the bugs out of it."  
  
"Peebochu? Isn't that the little Pikachu robot that Rook Killed?"   
  
"Yeah, I still owe him a little more payback for doing that." Brianna growled.  
  
"Um...Bri, look around you. Your little explosion has destroyed a good portion of this area and I don't see any sign of your little robot." Gina said as she watched Penny move about the area putting out some of the fires before they got out of hand.  
  
"AHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" Brianna screamed as she jumped up and started digging through some of scorched remains.   
  
"Um...Brianna?" Gina asked in confusion as her sister sat up holding a slightly melted mini-tire.  
  
"Thank God it's not his!" Brianna yelled and went back to searching the decimated remains of her lab are.   
  
"What's with her Gina?" Penny asked, she had always been a little hesitant around Gina's other sister.  
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAH HEHEHAHAHAHAHAH!!" Brianna cackled as she stood up. "He's not here, that means he was blown out of the area." She declared and dove for her still intact equipment and flipped a switch. It beeped and came to life showing a holographic screen of the area, but this was full of static because of the damage.  
  
Gina moved over to look at the screen she noticed that it was a tracking device, but the damage to the machine was enough to make it nearly impossible to pinpoint it's location, only that it was about a mile away and from where they were right now and moving. "Looks like it's south of us."  
  
"That's in an area we were told to stay away from isn't it?" Penny said.  
  
"Yeah, it is. We'll need to talk to one of the Elders to go and retrieve the little robot before it caused some kind of problem." Gina said and turned to her sister. "Let's go Brianna..."  
  
There was an empty spot where Brianna had been standing and a dust trail heading to the south.   
  
"Jinkies!"  
  
"Lets hurry and get to one of the Elders." Penny said.  
  
"Okay."  
  
**********  
  
"Peebo! Pe-Peebo ebo..." The lightning striped Peebochu chanted as it made its way though the tall crass.   
  
Behind it were about four preadolescent girls carrying an assortment of weapons as they all stalked through the grass. The girls were all from the Amazon village and in the early stages of their training. They had all been in the field practicing stealth and going through some basic conditioning when they had spotted the strange creature making its way through the grass. They had never seen anything like it before and when one had taken off to see what it was, the others had followed. Currently they were in awe that such a thing could even exist, never in their lives had they come across such a thing.   
  
"What is it?" Poa asked as she peaked out from the bushes. She was about eight, long brown hair, wearing a pantsuit, and carrying a bow that she was supposed to be practicing. Beside her were Lima, Choola, and Vespa, they were all wearing similar clothing and weapons. About the only difference was their hair colors, being Amazons they followed the tradition of having weird hair colors. Lima had blue green hair that hung down her back, Choola had short blonde hair, and Vespa had purple hair in the same style as Lima. They had been training together for the last three years and were always competing against each other in everything they did.  
  
"It looks like a rat of some kind." Lima said.   
  
"A yellow Rat?" Choola asked in dismay. "But it's so CUTE!!"  
  
"I think it's a Pikachu." Vespa gasped out, her eyes huge and misty.  
  
"What's a Pikachu?"  
  
"One of those creatures from that Anime I saw a few weeks back."  
  
"Since when can you see something like that?!" Lima snapped, it wasn't like electricity was an easy thing to come by in their village. Only a few of the Elders had small gas powered generators and even those were only used as a last resort.  
  
"At my cousin's place, I saw it when I went to the big city with Elder Lo-sion."  
  
Choola and Lima gasped, they remembered when Vespa had come back from that trip and been warned by the Elders not to discuss her trip with anyone. Of course that didn't stop her from telling her two best friends about it and all that she had seen. It was partly because of that trip that they had decided to go a little more modern with the electric plant those Outsiders were setting up for them. Vespa moved out of the bushes a little to take a closer look and saw the jagged, lightning shaped tail and Knew she was right.  
  
"It is a Pikachu." She gasped in awe.  
  
"Pe Bo ch-chu..." Peebo-chu chanted as it explored this new and strange place, there were so many different things to look at, to scan and touch. It Peebochu'd happily and continued on it's merry way, silently wondering if it would meet up with some strange and dangerous animal and have to take 'special' measures to get rid of it. Its eyes rattled in anticipation, this place just kept getting better and better. Then it spotted something in the distance and wheeled forward at fast speed. "Peebo Chu!!" It yelled as it left the girls in the dust of it's back wash.  
  
"Whoa!!" The girls said and took off after it.  
  
As it got closer, Peebochu started to detect something at the extreme ranges of its sensors. It slowed down to take a better look, it wasn't worried about the four girls behind it either, and they weren't doing anything to make it think they were a threat. No, this was something different and it rolled silently into the grass around it and went into stealth mode. Brianna is a mechanical genius if nothing else and her stealth mode was just that, Peebochu vanished from sight before the four girls eyes. It was the most amazing thing they had ever seen and it was just enough to distract them from watching their environment like they had been taught.  
  
Three large men stepped out of the tall grasses around them and started chuckling, the girls spun around and gasped. The men were easily recognizable as being Musk animal warrior of the Monkey class, they had more hair on their bodies and were a little taller than most men, had longer than normal arms and the classic monkey like features. A scientist would have called them Cro-Magnon men of some kind and tired to capture them for a few experiments and declared them the missing piece they had always been searching for. The Musk were almost the exact opposite of the Amazons and used Jusenkyo as a way to dunk criminals and animals into the drowned girl springs and created wives so that they could have more children with the genetic abilities of the animals they used.   
  
There were tiger tribes, monkey tribes, wolf, and a whole host of others that were only rumored to exist. The leader of the Musk, Prince Herb was in fact descended from a Ki Dragon that had been defeated and splashed with some of the drowned girl water to make it into a wife and pass it's blood onto the next generation of Musk. Over the years this blood had become deluded a little, but Prince Herb was still a force to be feared when he used his full power. His men were not quite as tough, but they did have the abilities of the animals that gave birth to them coupled with human intelligence.  
  
The girls didn't care a thing about any of this, all they knew was that their parents had told them about these creatures. They were brutes and slavers that wanted to dominate everyone and everything they could, kidnapping was not beneath them and all of them had been told to run from any Musk warriors they might have encountered. The monkey men quickly surrounded them and start grinning evilly.   
  
"Girls." One of them said as he started to drool a little.  
  
"MUSK!!?"  
  
"Aji, cut it out, they are to young to be used like that!" The apparent leader said.  
  
"But Fennel, their GIRLS!!" Aji begged.  
  
"Fennel is right, their too young for breeding, knock them and we'll wait for them to get a little older and use them when their ready." Dill said with a lecherous smirk a Poa.  
  
She gulped and looked at her friends, they had to get away, these were fully trained Musk men and no matter what they sounded like they were known to be very stubborn and dangerous when they set their minds on something. Poa controlled her fear and pulled the bow off her back, the rest followed suit and gained a little confidence from holding their weapons. "P-plan 3d."  
  
"Gotcha." The others said and crouched down like they were at a bat in a game of baseball.   
  
"Just what do you think you're going to do, snap your puny weapons on my chest?" Dill said with a grin and crouched down. The other two just laughed and nodded as they decided to play with their new toys.  
  
Poa swung her bow around and used it like a golf club, sending it right between Dill's legs and right into the one piece of anatomy that all Amazons loved to hate. It hit with a resounding crack, Poa's bow snapped in half and she lost her balance as Dill screamed in pain and fell to the ground. An instant later she heard Fennel and Aji scream out and go down around them, the girls screamed and took off at a full sprint for the village. A few seconds behind them the Peebochu rolled out of the high grass chanting to it's self, "Sneak, sneak, sneak..." as it was ringed in surges of electricity and an angry look in it's strangely intelligent eyes.  
  
The Musk warriors rolled to their feet and growled at the girls as they ran, they started to run after them with noticeable bow legged steps. Then one of them noticed the little metal animal coming up behind them and stopped to look it over, wondering if it had found something for lunch once they caught the small females. Fennel, Dill, and Aji were caught completely by surprise when a surge of electricity fired off the thing's body and used them as a target. They screamed in pain as thousands of volts of electricity ran through them for several seconds, then the little yellow thing stopped and seemed to give a satisfied smirk. All three of the Musk crashed to the ground in a heap, groaning in pain and smoldering.  
  
"That'll teach you to pick on little girls who are just trying to have a little fun." The Peebochu snapped as sit spun around and flicked its tail.  
  
WOOSH!!  
  
Wind washed over the area as Brianna came to a stop in front of the little Peebochu and glared down on it. "Peebochu?"  
  
"Hi Brianna, just following orders." The little Peebochu said as it seemed to try and stand at attention, a strange feet for a little machine.  
  
Brianna flicks her hair and looks over at the stunned and smoldering Musk warriors, she also notes the small sized weapons on the grounds. "Good work Peebochu, you shouldn't be in this area though, it's off limits to us."  
  
"That wasn't in my programming."  
  
"You were cut off from the download you were going through when that explosion happened."  
  
"Of course, then I need to finish that before I'm complete."  
  
Brianna smiled, personality was one of the final things that her creations had downloaded into her little friends and artificially intelligent explosives and multi use creations. She bent down to pick up Peebochu, she tapped a spot on the button of it and a small cover to reveal a series of touch pad buttons. With a couple of taps she turned him off and pulled out a Peebochu's 'brain', a special three-inch stick design that she had developed. As she had though it was slightly burnt at one end, luckily her design was able to take major amounts of punishment to accomplish its goal.  
  
She wasn't about to let what happened to the first Peebochu happen again and had designed in several back up systems. With a burst of speed she ran out of the area, leaving a giant cloud of dust behind her. A few seconds later Cologne hopped out of the trees with several of the Amazon warriors and the four little girls, they quickly tied up the Musk and got the ready for their trip to the disposal site. She looked off in the direction that the outsider had gone and shook her head.  
  
"What should we do about the Outsider Elder?" Asked one of the girls.  
  
Cologne considered it for several seconds, they had stumbled across the tail end of the battle just as the little machine took out three fully trained and mature Musk warriors as if it was nothing. "For now I'm not going to do anything, she broke one law and managed to save some of our children by doing so."  
  
"SHE BROKE THE LAW ELDER COLOGNE." Yelled one of the older girls.  
  
Cologne turned and slowly glared at the girl, it took a few seconds but she managed to remember who she was. "Li sion, you are one little step away from being punished by the council, do you understand me." Cologne said in a deadly low voice, she would not let her authority be questioned by an old fashioned idiot.   
  
"The law must be maintained! If you don't I...Uhg!!" Lo sion yelled as Cologne's staff hit her in the forehead and sent her flying back.  
  
"That is enough!!" Cologne yelled. "We must alter our ways or OUR CULTURE IS DEAD!!!! How hard is that to understand, it has been over a century and a half since we last adapted to the current times and we are dieing because of idiots like you who can not seem to understand that little fact!"  
  
Lo sion rolled to her feet and glared at Cologne. "I understand fine, but we must not forget the old ways over night."  
  
"We won't just the stupid and idiotic ones, I've always wondered what the ancient Amazons were smoking when they decided that everyone but them had to be killed or enslaved for the littlest reasons." Cologne snapped as she hit Lo sion again, this time sending her into dreamland for several hours. "Perfume!"  
  
"Elder?"  
  
"Drag her home, she is to be held there until the strangers leave."  
  
"Of course Elder." Perfume said with an evil grin, she grabbed Lo sion by the foot and dragged her off. She decided that taking the scenic rout through the rockier terrain would be better for all involved, Lo sion wasn't liked very many anyway and a few bumps and bruises would do her a world of good.  
  
**********  
  
The cliff above Brod's tower went up nearly eighty feet, not that high really, but nothing to take chances with either. If you were normal that is, Ranma was anything but a normal human being, he had spent too much time learning some of the best kept secrets in the world. He was a powerful martial artist and well on his way to being the best there ever was, it had been a dream of his since he first started his training. He had been here at Brod's tower for close to a month now, a month in hell, a month of intense training and pain beyond imagination. There had been a lot of thought going into his final training in the Neko-ken, a lot of what if's and other questions to make sure he knew what he was getting into.   
  
It should have taken a week at the most, but then just as he was getting things set in his mind something would change. They had locked him in the room and teleported a small kitten in, it was really cute and playful. Ranma remembered screaming in terror for a full ten minutes before he blacked out, all his meditation had had seemed meaningless in the face of a real cat. Oh he could control the fear to a small degree, but the had eventually come to the conclusion that he was just learning to disassociate werecats as humans. The real thing still held total control over his mind, the fear was always there just below the surface, waiting for the right time for the conditioned response to be activated. He hadn't been training with real cats and this mix up was the end result, the fear hadn't been as blunted as it should have been, according to the book things should have been lessoned after using the techniques for a few weeks, he still wasn't sure where he had screwed up. The next several days had been exactly the same, he would wake up and come out of the Neko-ken and be allowed to eat some food and get cleaned up, then they would send in another cat and would start screaming again. He had never been so humiliated in all his life, he had felt pathetic and useless the whole time.   
  
Ranma shuddered a little and felt like a pathetic wuss, it had taken him ten days of this 'training' before he was able to finally gain a tiny amount of control over his fear. Within a matter of days, once this had happened, he had managed to fight off the fear and stay out of the Neko-ken for a full hour as he focused on the meditation techniques and controlling his intense fear. By the time the hour was up he had been shaking like a leaf for ten minutes before his mind blanked out and he plunged into the Neko-ken. After he had managed this he had been given twelve hours to recover instead of the normal two that the book suggested before they started all over again, eventually he was able to move on to bigger cats. Control had come to him a little quicker once that first major block had been passed, within another ten days he had managed to move on to the next level of the training and begin training in the kata of the Neko-ken itself. it took him three days to figure out how to manifest his Ki claws and willingly regress himself down into a cat like state and still keep control. He only fell off the edge once and entered the Neko-ken without his mental control and even that hadn't been anything like normal, he remembered the twenty minutes that he was under. It had allowed him to experiment and find a way to pull himself out of that horrid state so it had been well worth it in the end, though Dr. Diggers had chewed him out for his lack of control during the next break.   
  
It was at that point that Ranma had thought himself completely cured and asked to be let out, but Master Julia had told him that he had several days worth of training to go. His claws had been his next lesson, he found out the hard way that they tended to manifest themselves if he wasn't paying attention, he'd nearly send a claw through the magically enhanced door that Brod had set up for the training. Now that he had mastered himself with the normal house cats, the type that he had been trained with, he had to move on to the other types. The medium and big cats that he would encouter every now and then, like bobcats and lions. That had caught Ranma by surprise, then he remembered looking into the room where the cats had been caged and seeing all the different sizes of cats just waiting to be set free. Next had come the bobcat, a Panther, lion, tiger and others that he had never heard of. The fear had returned in full force, nearly catching him by surprise, but had mastered it through sheer strength of will. He had no intentions of ever being seen as weak because of the Neko-ken again.   
  
The whole process had been sheer hell and Ranma never wanted to go through anything like that again, but knew that he would have to put the pain behind him and move on, who knew what the future would bring. When they finally let him out of the room Ranma had been changed in a number of ways, this didn't include the fact that he was stronger and faster because he now unconsciously tapped into the Neko-ken and had become even more deadly than he ever was, but changed mentally. Dr. Diggers had noticed it first, he had been quiet and withdrawn, not speaking to anyone unless they talked to him first. Then a few hours later he was back to his normal self, but when no one was looking at him or paying attention he blended into the background and kept to himself. Julia had noticed too and been worried about him, she had tried to talk to him, but he just hadn't wanted to talk about it.  
  
Now Ranma was up here on top of this cliff over looking the whole valley, he had passed his training and grown in strength and couldn't figure out why he didn't really care. There was a part of him that wanted to run and jump like had always wanted did, but there was another part of him that didn't and it was full of emotions that he didn't understand. He could feel something there and it was very strong, all he had to do was reach out and touch it with his mind and he was filled with this power that was unlike anything he had ever felt before. The Neko-ken had been the first step to achieving this level of power, he knew that, but this felt like it had always been there and he had just been unaware of it until now. He sat there brooding over this for several minutes as he watched the sun set, his mind again wandering through all the things he had experienced over the last month. One of the biggest changes was that he wasn't thinking along the same paths as he had before, he felt more grown up in some ways. That was a change that he hadn't expected, his mind seemed to have finally caught up to the corrections Gina had done to him when she fixed him up with those machines of hers. Yet there was a part of him that wanted to rebel against it, it was like he had grown up to fast and he didn't want to just yet.  
  
He held up his hand and made a fist, with a flash of light four claws made of Ki seemed to extend from his hand, right from the valley between each knuckle, just like a cat's claws. They extended out close to a foot and glowed brightly and even at this low power he could tell that they were cutting through the light breeze that was blowing across the top of the cliff. He reached out to the edge of the stone by his leg and sliced off a sliver of stone like a hot knife through warm butter. It was one thing to know he could do something like this, but to actually see it was absolutely amazing. Even after ten years on the road training with literally hundreds of Martial Arts Masters, he had never encountered something like this. As he sat there Ranma could also tell that the Ki flows inside his body had changed to accommodate his increased abilities, where before he'd been forced to almost grapple with his his Ki, it now seemed to flow and move at his mental command as easily as thought.  
  
It was almost too easy to access now, he could feel it flowing through him almost demanding to be let loose and it frightened him just like the first time his old man had tossed him off a roof to teach him how to take a fall. In all his years Ranma had never had this kind of trouble controlling his Ki, it had always been something he had to force to his will. This wasn't even emotion based Ki either, but pure Ki that was raging within him as easily as his own blood. He let the claws go and watched as they faded away, then held his hand out, pointing at a target about forty feet down the cliff, and fired out a small Ki blast. It was silver in color and flew out of his hand like a cannon shot to obliterate the small rock out cropping he had been looking at. Dust rained down on the ground below like fine mist, Ranma had never dreamed of being able to do anything like this before.  
  
This kind of power was what made good people turn bad, he didn't want to fall into that trap like some of the other people he had met. He had never met anyone with this kind of strength, for some reason he felt like Goku in the Dragon Ball manga back home. He had so much power and still managed to keep it in check and stay the good guy when he had been tempted so many times before. Training and discipline were the only things that came to mind as he sat there, they were the only way to control himself now. He would have to be on his guard constantly, even when he was asleep or he might hurt someone. That was the one thing didn't want to do, it would compromise his honor and the vow he had taken to protect the weak and innocent.   
  
Ranma's head came up and he looked at a spot just behind him, he could feel something at the very edge of his senses. Then for a blink of an eye that spot wavered and Dr. Diggers appeared, Ranma felt the energy of the spell waft off as the man walked forward. As usual Dr. Diggers was in his mage suit and it was making him blend in with the shadows given off the stones and trees all round them as the sun hovered just above the horizon. Ranma blinked at him and turned back to face the sun again, he hadn't been in much of a talkative mood lately, though he knew the others were worried for him. He supposed it was about time he talked to someone about what was going on his mind.  
  
"Hello Ranma." Dr. Diggers said. He looked out over the valley as he looked at what Ranma was, it had been a long time since he had seen its like.  
  
"Hi Dr. Diggers, what brings you up here?"  
  
"Julia was worried about you and asked me to see if you were alright."  
  
"I'm just up her trying too come to terms with what happened."  
  
"Ah, well you did very well Ranma. That training should have been done within a month after you completed the Neko-ken the first time, it would have taken a week or so to complete and you would have been fine. It has been about nine years since that happened Ranma, you had built up a lot of resistance to the fear and it took more time to break through it."  
  
Ranma nodded, they had explained that.  
  
"I'm actually surprised this didn't take even longer than it did."  
  
"You're kidding, for me to take a month to learn something like this is pathetic. I should have had it down by the end of the second week at the latest, I've never taken this long to learn something." Ranma complained.  
  
"Maybe, but you had a lot of built up mental walls to break through Ranma, they were a lot harder to get through than what you went through when you first got your curse. There is also a second reason that you had problems..."  
  
"Oh?" Ranma asked as he turned to look at the older man.  
  
"Yes, I meant to talk to you about it once you finished your training, that's why I'm here now. It has to do with your curse."  
  
"Everything seems to be because of the damned curse!"  
  
"Actually your curse doesn't exist anymore, not as it was when you first got it anyway..."  
  
"Doesn't exist?! Let me get some cold water and I'll show you doesn't exist!"   
  
"That is just the curse's effect Ranma, it's magic has become a part of you, so much so that if you were to ever lose it, you would die."  
  
"What?!"  
  
Dr. Diggers sighed and nodded. "The curse has altered itself in some way and changed you as well."  
  
Ranma sighed, maybe that explained his suddenly increased power and ease that he could channel his Ki. "So what do I have to deal with now?" He asked sarcastically.  
  
"Actually you have gained something you didn't have before, the ability to use magic."  
  
Now Ranma was gapping at Dr. Diggers.  
  
"The magic merged with your soul and turned you into a being that can tap into the magic available in the environment around you. That is usually done by casting a special spell on a prospective student and letting them slowly learn how, you had it thrust on you without warning."  
  
"I can hear a problem in there."  
  
"Correct, I have to teach you some basics of magic before you really begin to use it unconsciously and end up hurting someone by accident."  
  
"It's just one thing after another isn't it?" Ranma snapped, he was at his wits end with all this crap, he stood up and started pacing back and forth and wondered what the next thing would be. Would his cursed form suddenly step out of him and go off to whore herself for a little cash, he though bitterly. "How much more of this am I going to have to put up with before the next problem shows up?"  
  
"The last few weeks have been hard on all of us Ranma and I understand what you're going through to some degree, you're not the first person to have this kind of thing happen to them. We call those like you a 'Wild Talent' and it's best to move carefully so that more mistakes are not made. I just wanted to let you know what you still had to do and to prepare for it, you can take a couple of weeks off to calm down and relax. Your training in magic will take several months, there isn't a major hurry, but it has to be done eventually before you start to surge to much."  
  
"I understand, sorry for snapping at you like that." Ranma said with a sigh, relived that he didn't have to rush right into the next thing. A break from the norm would be nice, he couldn't remember the last time he had actually had time to himself, the old man had certainly frowned on him ever getting time to think for himself that was for sure.  
  
"Don't worry about it, you just need a little rest after going through that kind of experience."  
  
Ranma laughed bitterly. "Don't let my pop hear you, he says one must always be prepared for an attack, anytime and anywhere. He would never let me rest after something like this, just move on to the next insanely dangerous exercise. I always wondered if he thought that the time I spent unconscious was a rest stop, I used to relax while we were on the road and between training grounds, so this will be a good chance to unwind a little. A rare opportunity really."  
  
"Good, good, come on down when you're ready and we'll get dinner ready."  
  
"Alright." Ranma said and waved as Dr. Diggers vanished in the same way he had appeared. He was seeing magic, at least he thought he was and that explained why he could tell when Dr. Digger's was using magic. To Ranma it was just one more headache to put up with, but if it had to be done to protect others, even from himself, it would be worth it. Ranma grinned, when the old man found out all that he had learned on this trip he was going to have a coronary.   
  
"Bwhahahahahahah!!" It was a bit bitter, but it made him feel a lot better than he had been.  
  
With the sun finally down Ranma went back to brooding as he sat there an considered what he had just been told. Magic, who would have thought he would ever have to learn how to throw spells around? Just so he wouldn't accidentally hurt someone, no he had better control than that but he felt it would be a good place to start on continuing his training. He lay back and looked up at the darkening sky, the unfamiliar stars had bothered him when he first arrived here, but he didn't really care about them now, they had just become one more thing for him to learn about on his endless quest to be the best.   
  
The Diggers were so strange at times, they were smart and well trained in many fields, Gina had introduced him to the world of science and taught him some things that were just so incredible to him. Then there was Brianna and her weapons, she just loved to tinker with those things and to test them out on her friends, Ranma had been at ground zero of a paint bomb more than once in the last few months. Dr. Diggers had expanded his mind by teaching him about life, showing him two different worlds, and would soon start showing him how to cast magic. He would be learning a whole new art now, it would have to be added to his martial arts school, bit that would come later, or on the fly if it was an emergency. Master Julia had increased his skills to levels that were just plain amazing and she wasn't close to stopping yet, by the time he got back to his father, the old man would be way to easy to beat. Ranma grinned, he had wanted to get a bit of payback on the old man for as long as he could remember.  
  
Everyone he met lately seemed to expand his knowledge in one area or another, even the Edge Guard. Onoli had taken the time to show him some of his own personal calming techniques while he had been trapped in the room, Sheila had also stopped by to help him maintain control and even braved the room on several occasions to give him a hand when it looked like he was in trouble. So many changes to his life had occurred in such a short time, he wasn't the same Ranma Saotome that had stumbled upon Shangri-la just a few weeks before, he wondered if he was even close to the same person anymore. He had been forced to put up with so much bullshit in his life, it was a welcome change of pace, but he knew it wouldn't last. He knew that from experience, his life had been too hectic to believe other wise, when it came to describing him the word 'normal' was just a strange foreign sound.  
  
Ranma came out of his thoughts as his danger sense went off, it wasn't an instant death kind of thing, but a someone is watching you feeling. At first he though it might be Dr. Diggers again, but after a few seconds he ruled that out, the Ki didn't feel right. It was laced with fear and determination so it had to be someone or something that was being forced to do an act against their will or wasn't used to being in danger. He let out a calm breath and entered the first stages of the Neko-ken and let the increased senses of the technique wash over him. His eye sight became incredibly pronounced and he could smell things that would have amazed a normal human.  
  
He crouched down on in a cat like stance, started sniffing the air, and to reach out and feel the unknown Ki. He couldn't locate it's exact location, but he could tell when it suddenly turned panicky and was suddenly laced with a more pronounced fear, then as quickly as it appeared it vanished completely. At first he didn't know what was going on exactly, but as he moved about the area he quickly realized that the enemy was no where to be found. Even after sending his Ki out for a more powerful look at his surroundings revealed next to nothing out of the ordinary except for some animals hiding in the bushes around him, so he relaxed slightly and let go of the Neko-ken enhanced senses. He didn't want to stay like that for long if he had any choice in the matter, it was just so tempting to use it at all times. It would be some time before he got used to using the technique as part of his main style, but now that he had it mastered he would be able to use it whenever he wanted.  
  
He had control down, now he had to work with it until he had it down so absolutely perfect that he could expand upon it at will, there wasn't a thing that would stop him either. The Neko-ken had been his greatest weakness, it had plagued him since he was a little kid and now that it was gone he would sooner die than go back to that way of life. Ranma sighed and walked back over to the edge of the cliff and looked out over the small valley, the sun was almost completely down now, he had to get back to the tower before it went down all the way over the horizon. With a shrug he flared his Ki and stepped off the edge with a smirk and plummeted down the face, he grinned when he kicked out and bounced off the stone face, rolled into a ball, and flipped the last few meters and landed on the soft grass that surrounded the tower with barely a sound.   
  
Someone started clapping and Ranma turned to see Master Julia standing beside a tree, she was blending into the darkness around her almost completely. Ranma reached out with his Ki to see her better in the low light and realized that he couldn't detect her Ki signature, if he closed his eyes it would have been as if she wasn't there at all. He had never met anyone with that kind of control before and he been taught how to look for the tiniest signs of an aura by a master thief. "Very good Ranma, that was an excellent test of your skills."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"How are you feeling?"  
  
"About normal, though ever since I gained control of the Neko-Ken I've been feeling a little weird."  
  
Julia nodded as she walked over to him and sat down. "Sit down Ranma."  
  
Ranma shrugged and sat down.  
  
"What do you plan to do now that this is over with?"  
  
"I don't know really, I still have about four months to go before our deal is over with."  
  
"Your skills are amazing Ranma, you do know that don't you?" Julia raised a questioning eyebrow.  
  
"Of course. I'm the best!" Ranma said with a smirk.  
  
"Ranma!"  
  
"Yeah, yeah, tone down the arrogance. You know, until I met you no one ever complained about me like this."  
  
"That's because it allowed you to be used and manipulated quite easily Ranma, that is how I tricked you into that fight after all." Julia smirked.  
  
"I know, but you've helped me out quite a bit really. I don't think I would've been as good as I am without the type of training you put me through. Oh yeah, Dr. Diggers was telling me that I have to learn some magic too, did you know about that?."  
  
"Oh yeah." Julia said with a frown, she didn't like the idea one bit but trusted Theo to do the right thing "What do you think of that?"  
  
"Nothing really, it's just more training. It's all I've ever done, as far back as I can remember I've done nothing but train and train and train until I dropped in my tracks. Then pops would kick me until he was sure I wasn't faking and go eat all the food rations before I woke up." Ranma shrugged and smiled as if it hadn't bothered him a bit, then jumped a little when a pair of large torches flared up on either side of the main gate to Brod's Lookout.  
  
"I was thinking of allowing you take a few days off from training, what do you say to that?"  
  
Ranma blinked. "Huh?"  
  
"A day off to play around and have some fun."  
  
"You mean one of those mystical 'day's off' that I've heard about, there is no such thing as rest for a martial artist, pops says so, all I'm allowed is a night of sleep and even then I would have to be ready for an attack at any time."  
  
This time Julia blinked, there was that strange man's rules again. She wondered how many bad habits the man had instilled in his son over the years, Ranma was arrogant to the point of being a total jerk, mean, said things out of the blue that were grounds for a good beating, and now this? Was there nothing that the man did right, he was already walking across deadly ground for the nearly half dozen cases of child abuse she could pin on the man, Ranma had the scars to prove it several times over. She shook her head, Ranma was the only reason she hadn't turned him in that first day and that was because she had been asked not to by her new student.  
  
"Ranma, all martial artists take a break every now and then, even me."  
  
"Well whatever, I wouldn't know what to do if I wasn't training. Pop's wants everything to be training, if I was to go to the movies I had to get in without being caught by using stealth. Dinner always consisted of a battle over food, a habit you made me break by the way, and even then pops usually got most of it before I got it to my mouth. I don't know what I would do with nothing like that to deal with, sit around? Watch the plants grow?" Ranma asked.  
  
Julia shook her head, mentally Ranma was quicker than he had been before and he had the knowledge from all those books in his head now, but at times he was still as dense as a board, it was as if all her work had been a complete waste of time. "Okay then, well tomorrow we'll be taking a break, but I think I'll include some games for you to play and a couple of techniques for you to study so you can pass the time I don't want you to be bored."  
  
Ranma smiled. "Sure..."  
  
"Ranma?"   
  
Ranma turned to see Sheila standing by the front door to the Lookout, one of the torches giving her quite a back light effect. She was wearing her usual clothes and had a back pack with her, even from here Ranma could smell some of the food that was in it. "Hi Sheila, how's things going back in town?"  
  
"Pretty good, were wearing down all the bandits in the area, they've been backing off a little. Are you alright?"  
  
"Sure, why?"  
  
"You were still going through that horrid training the last time I was here and I had to go in that room to help you out." Sheila said quietly, a bit of apprehension in her voice. She could still see Ranma's soulless eyes as he gazed at her in confusion.  
  
With a shrug Ranma stood up and stretched a little, he didn't see Sheila blush a little and step into a nearby shadow to hid it from Ranma. "It was just training, nothing to worry about."  
  
"NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT?!!" Sheila screamed out. "You were running around on all fours and scratching an ear with your foot!!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"There are times when Ranma goes into the Neko-ken that he has no recollection of the time he spent in it Sheila. That was the reason he went though the training in the first place, so that he could gain conscious control over it, he shouldn't be doing things like that anymore." Julia said.  
  
"Oh that." Ranma said a bit nervously. "I've got it under control now, that should never happen again."  
  
"Thank God!" She sighed in relief. "Well let's go inside, I brought some snacks for everyone."  
  
"Cool!!" Ranma yelled and hopped over to Sheila and opened the door for her. "You coming Master Julia?"  
  
"No thanks Ranma, I'll stay out here a few more minutes."   
  
"If you're sure..."  
  
"Of course Ranma."  
  
"Alright, have fun." Ranma said with a wink and led Sheila inside where several of the Edge Guard and Brod were sitting around a fire drinking and going over some of the lookout's library.  
  
Julia turned and looked out into the darkness. "Well?"  
  
Dr. Diggers appeared beside his wife. "We have to be careful, he is going to be stubborn if I mess this up."  
  
"He looks at it as if it was normal martial arts training, there shouldn't be to much a problem."  
  
"That strange aura of his keeps throwing me off, even my friends are a bit stumped about what to do with him."  
  
"They have no clue?" Julia asked with a frown.  
  
"Every time I scan him his aura changes, I've done so three times this week and got an aura that could tap Water based powers, then Air, then something even I've never seen before. Dee'em is stumped, Nali has no clue what to look for, and Bugee hasn't had a chance to look him over yet. Even Brod is unsure what to make of the boy and he usually has a good grasp of the stranger situations."  
  
"But just teaching him the basics won't hurt will it?"  
  
"Most anyone with the tiniest amount of magic skill can master the basics, but they do so by dedicating themselves to one class of magic."  
  
Julia looked into the sky for several minutes before the replied, then an idea occurred to her. "Well, if he always has a different aura teach him to use all the different types."  
  
"That's impossible, the human body couldn't take the different kinds of stresses required to handle the varying types of power, it has to adjust to one or two types or it would be burned out almost instantly." Dr. Diggers said.  
  
"...how many of your magic students could have handled what Ranma went though this month and survived, dear?"  
  
"...."  
  
"Hmmm...?"  
  
"None of them."  
  
"Is there a class of magic that you haven't considered yet, something that hasn't been around for some time?"  
  
"A different class?"  
  
"Yeah, I know of the normal types like Aura, Illusionist, Summoner, and a few other common types that are around now, is there something that was abandoned or forgotten about long ago?"  
  
"If it was forgotten about, how do you expect me to know anything about it?" Theo said with a grin.  
  
Julia punched his arm. "You know what I mean!"  
  
Dr. Diggers just continued to grin as he rubbed his arm. "Well me and Nali were discussing the possibility of the Shi Hanna the night before we left to come here."  
  
"Shi Hanna...doesn't that translate into 'Death Blossom'?"  
  
"Yeah, but it's a legend that very few people know about."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"It's so old that it's been all but forgotten over the last few millennia, back during the Great Rebellion in fact."  
  
"That was back when the 'Games' were going on..." Julia gasped, as an Armsmaster this was something she should have known about. They always had to be on guard in case some of the old legends came back to haunt them, there was a responsibility that came with the title.  
  
Dr. Diggers nodded. "Before the First Armsmaster showed up, it was believed that the Shi Hanna would appear to free the people, even the Gladiator Slaves of the time, but after everyone was freed by the First Armsmaster, the legend was abandoned in favor of a more popular one."  
  
"Is this guy supposed to do something else other than free the people?"  
  
"I have no idea, the legends says that the Shi Hanna is supposed to be incredibly powerful, both good and evil, able to whatever he wants without any kind of ramifications. It's one of those typical god like power entities that will come down and kill the enemy and free those that have been enslaved." Dr. Diggers said with a shrug.  
  
"That almost sounds like a something to look forward to and you think there is a chance that Ranma could be this 'Shi Hanna' character?"  
  
"I certainly hope not!"  
  
"Um...why?"  
  
"The old histories are a bit vague, but they mention things about ultimate power and other hair raising items. I don't want anyone running around with that kind of power on his hands, it would be a living nightmare waiting to go off. The Shade's had us enslaved for eon's with their power, what would this guy do if he ever truly existed, we could quickly find ourselves in the same position again."  
  
**********  
  
"So what did you find out?" The armor clad knight growled as the small fox ran into the stone lined room and stopped in front of the throne, it transformed into humanoid shape. That for some unknown reason known to most censers, acquired a complete set of clothes even though it was a naked fox when it came in.   
  
Blain the Fox shrugged. "He is incredibly sensitive Master Rook, he spotted me almost the instant I got close enough to see him."   
  
"This is the same guy that put you in jail, why didn't you attack him? I got you out of that punishment mine for reason you know."  
  
"Yes sir, but I have to do this carefully. It doesn't help that he is surrounded by several of the Edge Guard, an Armsmaster, and a powerful Aura Mage almost constantly." Blain said nervously, he wished he was still in the mines, at least he only had to worry about cave ins while he was there. These people hadn't given him a choice in the matter when they came for him, come or die, he had picked the safest rout available to him, he'd fainted and been dragged out of the mine against his will.  
  
"I don't want to hear excuses Blain, we freed you for a reason and you will do as you're told or I will make your life a living hell."  
  
"I-I'll do as you've asked, but I have to find a way to get close to him without the others detecting me. That Lookout is full of werecats that can smell any kind of creature at a hundred yards."  
  
"You are supposed to be an exceptional thief, getting close to a target should be second nature to you!"  
  
"I'm an exceptional pick pocket sir, not a second story man who goes into other people's houses for stuff."  
  
The armor clad man rubbed the forehead of his helmet as if he had a headache and leaned back in his chair. "HANZO!!!"  
  
All was quiet for several seconds, then they heard one of the other members of Rook's new gang. "FUCK OFF ROOK!! You rusty piece of SHIT, I'm still trying to recover from the pounding that boy gave me!" Hanza yelled as she staggered into the room and stood there in her bandages. "and for the last time, my name is HANZA!! H.A.N.Z.A. get it right for once!!"  
  
"As fun as teaching you the true joy's of being a woman would be, I need you to help our newest recruit here."  
  
Hanza growled in fury and thought about killing Rook once more. "He's a thief, have him go and steal something, I have to take a little while to heal up."  
  
"It's been a month, you're fine." Rook snapped.  
  
"I'm still dealing with the internal damage."  
  
"So what, be a 'man' and deal with it."  
  
"mummble...mummble.." Hanza grumbled.  
  
"What was that?" Rook inquired.  
  
"I said I'm dealing with a really bad series of cramps this month because of the internal damage I received in my fight." Hanza snapped, she blushed a little.  
  
Rook fell out of his chair. "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU'RE EXPERIENCING THIS MONTH!! Go and give Blair here a hand keeping his presence from being detected, you can even get revenge on the guy that beat you up since Blair is going to be watching over him for a little while."  
  
The irate boy turned girl turned to glare at the cowering werefox for a few seconds before turning to Rook. "Fine, it'll take a few days though. I can't function properly when I'm like this for any length of time."  
  
"Fine, fine, just so long as he can get the information I need within the next few months." Rook said with a sigh and made some shooing motions with his gauntlets. "Just get out of here."  
  
Hanza grabbed Blair and dragged him out of the room. "Come on hair ball, we can begin your training in the wonderful world of sneakery at the very least."  
  
"Um...yes ma'am." Blair stuttered out.  
  
Hanza growled.  
  
"Be careful 'ma'am', fox boy might be getting some romantic notions!!" Rook called out just as they left the room.  
  
"FUCK YOU ROOK!!!"  
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!"  
  
Hanza pulled Blair down the hall for a ways before letting go of him, but made sure he stayed with her until they reached the one of the lower levels of Rook's castle, he had reacquired it after he regained his freedom. Rook being an undead monster with more brains than the rest of them, he always had a couple dozen undead of one kind or another around to give him a hand, but also liked to keep a few live ones around for special missions. Hanza was also indebted to him for her current freedom, even if she did hate his undead guts.  
  
"So what is the tin can asking you to do?" Hanza asked. "And why exactly do I need to teach a thief how not to be detected?"  
  
"Don't you know why I'm here?" Blair asked in surprise.  
  
"Rook seems to think us humans are able to read minds and know what he's thinking, the arrogant jerk, he never explains his orders."  
  
"Oh, well he wants me to attack this guy that put me in a mine prison. Rook had me broken out so that I could get my revenge."  
  
"What was this guys name?"  
  
"Ranma something."  
  
Hanza stopped walking and turned to glare at Blair, she raised her hand a little over her head. "About this tall, black hair, look's like an idiot and good at fighting?"  
  
"Yeah, that sounds like him."  
  
Blair coughed as the wind was knocked out of him a few seconds later, the evil looking girl had firm grip on the front of his shirt as she held him against the wall. "Where is he right now?" She hissed.  
  
"B-Brod's Lookout..." Blair gasped out.  
  
"What is he doing there?"  
  
"I'm not sure, some kind of training that is supposed to be extremely dangerous."  
  
"Give me details, Foxman." Hanza said and thumped him against the wall a couple of times.  
  
"Mrs. Hanza I'm a p-pick pocket, not a spy, I wasn't a-able to get all that close before I was n-noticed." Blair muttered, he silently wondered if he could take the girl out with her so obviously injured. Then quickly decided against it when he realized that she was a highly trained fighter and even injured she was way to dangerous to provoke.  
  
With a growl Hanza let go of Blair's shirt and let him slump down a little, the anger in her eyes was enough to scare the crap out of him. "Fine, let's get this over with, if he's training that means I have to as well if I'm to get him back for beating me up like this."  
  
"I-If you want I'd be more than willing to go back to the mines, at least I was safer there."  
  
"Oh no, Rook may be a jerk, but he actually has some brains under that rusty helmet of his and a good number of his plans actually work the way they're supposed to and if he wants you to do something, you will do it." Hanza snapped and pushed the scared fox creature in front of her. "Now let's go, we need to see if the Practice room is open right now."  
  
Blair paled. "R-Right."  
  
This wasn't actually a room, but a powerful and huge magical construct that Rook had stolen some years before in one of his most notable attacks. A very strong wizard had started a war with Rook, this hadn't gone over very well with the Undead Commander and he'd retaliated against the wizard by attacking him with the very magic that Rook uses to create his soldiers, Undead magic. Hanza didn't know who that wizard was, but Rook had acquired quite a large number of magical devices. Unfortunately most of them were useless when used by the undead of his army, but there were several useful things that were availible and the Practice room was one of these.  
  
Like Seer's Hamlet, the crystal had been designed by a master mage of some power and ability. The training space was contained inside of a large crystal that Rook had set up in the lower levels of his his castle, he used it to test out some of his plans and to train his soldiers. Its only drawback was that he could only train up to ten people at a time, so he used it for small teams and speical training for his leaders. Most of the high powered or governing bodies knew that Rook had the crystal, but he had transformed his mountain top castle into a fortress that was almost impregnable at the best of times because of the Raise Dead spells that covered the whole area. Rook kept his troops full by letting armies attack him and waiting for their dead to get back up and change sides to fight for him.   
  
Several years before Rook had been defeated by Julia Diggers when she found out the secret weakness of his magic armor and used it against him, entombing him in a solid wall of stone. He was later released and forced to work for a man named Tyrant that was trying to rule over all of Jade, but again defeated by Brianna Diggers and Sheila of the Edge Guard. He hadnt' taken this very well and used his powers to cement his hold over his troops and rethink his plans for revenge. He wasn't forced to be someone's pawn anymore, but there were people out there that needed to be destroyed. So he had gathered to him a number of people that he could use effectively, though there were things he was holding over all of them so that they didn't get to out of line.   
  
Hanza resented the situation, but on top of all that she was still being paid for her services, so she tolerated it as best she could and did the job Rook forced her to do. So she was going to make sure Blair learned what Rook wanted him to learn, they reached the room where the large crystal was kept under constant guard by a small detachment of undead guards that had orders to keep anyone from using the crystal. As one of the few humans in the castle, Hanza was one of the few to have a chance to use the magical device because it furthered Rook's plans in someway. The large and smelly undead guards at the door completely ignored them as they entered, Hanza tend to come down here two or three times a week to practice her skills.  
  
She had been planning to use the Practice room to get herself in shape for a rematch with Ranma after she was completely healed, but with Ranma already training she had to start as well. Having to train this thief would work in her favor as well because it was light work and mostly learning how to hide one's presence from someone else, she didn't use the skills all that much, but she did know how to use them somewhat. Though she had to admit that she probably wasn't the worlds best at using them and tended to rely more on magic than her own skills, like the time she used the silence spell on herself to keep from being heard by Sheila during a rather nasty fight.  
  
"Well, place your hand on the crystal and do as I do." Hanza muttered, this was going to take a while.  
  
"Yes ma'am."  
  
Hanza grabbed him by the throat and glared at him. "Call me that again and I'll rip your throat out, go me?"  
  
"Yes ma...eh...sir?"  
  
Hanza grinned evilly as she looked the little fox creature over and made Blair shiver in fear. "That's better."  
  
**********  
  
Among Gina Digger's most notable accomplishments was the fact that she was a robotics genius, everything she built had a bit of this technology somewhere inside it. Her computer, her vehicles, her weapons, and her robots of course. Her main robotic creations were called Hurt Bots, they were just one small step below fully functioning Artificial Intelligences. They could learn, adapt, and plan as easily as any human could and had all the benefits of being robots: increased strength, speed, and attached weapons.  
  
She had three levels of Robots, level A bots were for defense and combat, their main use was to guard Gina's lab and equipment from any kind of theft or harm, giving their all to protect it all. Most of the looked like modern versions of a heavily armored Knight from long ago, faceless engines of destruction. Several months before Gina's lab had been invaded and destroyed by the bioenginered creations of a sentient dog from another dimension named Dr. Peachbody. His creations had been increadibly destructive and more than a match for her current level of hurt bot, she had spent some time since redesigning and building stronger and more powerful versions of Hurt Bot by mixing in weapons from her latest discoveries.  
  
Level B's were for miscellaneous work and lower level defensive capabilities around the house and designed to look more human, Gina used them for almost everything when she needed an extra pair of hands, lab assistance, extra muscle, and anything else she could think of. These were some of the bots that Ranma was training against a few weeks back, they had a whole score of uses that she liked to use them for. They even took care of the yard work around her house and kept things tidy, happily working away in preprogrammed bliss. Brianna had special uses for these as well, but knowing Biranna's way of thinking, it was better left unsaid.  
  
There appearance and human like skills were one reasons she had them helping to build the hydroelectric plant, taking care of the heavy work while Gina and Penny installed the main equipment. They were doing massive amounts of landscaping, building trails, even rerouting the river just a slight bit for better access to the water wheel that ran the plant. Level C's were for special projects that needed things or equipment that the others were not able to use as effectively, these were usually the non humanoid robots like Brianna's Peebos, underwater exploration vehicals, high altitude scanning balloons, and special field work.   
  
Gina had brought about thirty of the level B's with her when Ace started to ferry equipment back and forth from the docks at the coast and the larger equipment though the Light Gate teleporter, they worked almost continiously without stop and were one of the main reasons they were able to get the whole place built as quickly as they did. They only required a ten minute recharge every twelve hours, so Gina had them working in a staggered shift throughout the day and taking care of their own recharging while she concentrated on the main installation of the plant. She made it a habit to check on them every few hours to see if they were having any problems with anything and rarely had to take a hand in anything they were doing, everything that they needed had been downloaded into them and off they went.  
  
Bot #42 was working at the far section of the property taking measurements to make sure they had gotten everything built correctly as they slowly transformed the entire area from wilderness into a nice looking park by moving bushes, transplanting trees and all sorts of other things like running underground wire from the plant to the Amazon Village. Along with the measurements he was making out the next ground level trench on his way to the outskirts of the village where another crew was working to get the houses set up for electricity. It had been noted in it's memory logs that the Amazon's would either avoid them, pretend they didn't exist, or get confused about whether they were real men or not.  
  
So it was with some surprise that it's senses detected something moving up on it from the side. #42 looked up to see a large human rose up out of the bushes off to it's right. The human was rather large, almost seven foot tall and cloaked shadows so details were impossible to make out. #42 turned to face the human and saw that it was armed with some kind of long object, then it jumped forward and brought it's weapon to bare. #42 was only a level B robot so it didn't have the defensive capabilities that the level A's possessed, but it was designed for emergencies and it automatically jumped back and attempted to block the weapon with it's arm.  
  
The area is filled with the sound of wrenching metal and sparks as #42 skids to a stop against a tree, it's entire arm is missing, and a shower sparks arched from the injured limb as it stood there trying to understand what had happened. "Error 01-E." It says and transmits and emergency message back to camp.  
  
"I thought you would be a bigger challenge robot, oh well, I've had my fun." The man says as he puts his weapon away, flexes his muscles, and lifts his fist high. "I think this will hurt you way more than it will me." His 'Evil Grin' was visible in the shadows around him.  
  
CRASH!!   
  
"Error 01-E."  
  
CRASH!!  
  
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEE BZZZZZZZ  
  
"Error 01-E..."  
  
"Heh, that was fun." The man says and walks away from the pile of shattered metal and circuit boards, he stomps on it a couple of times just to be mean.  
  
**********  
  
Brod may have been a troll, but he was an educated one that had achieved the title of Archmage in magic and had established his home as a small library of magical lore. He had lived here for years and used his magic to make his life a little more comfortable compared to some of the places his people tended to be found. They had this reputation as stupid idiots that liked to throw large stones at anything that moved, this was a race prejudice that he strove to make people understand about trolls. It didn't apply to him and he was proud of his accomplishments, but it had also gotten him somewhat exiled from his own people, they avoided him like the plague. It had been nearly forty years since he had seen another troll and that one had totally ignored him.  
  
His library was of use to the other races though and he had opened it up to anyone that wanted to visit and study, but in his loneliness he had worked some special spells upon several of the rooms in the tower and on some of the caverns he had found deep inside the cliff that his home was built against. He had several rooms designed to put up guests, one room for every kind of magic that he studied and had books on, but it was his 'special' rooms that he was known for, the specially designed prayer rooms that pilgrims used to meditate, the observatory that he had built in an upper part of the cliff, and the gardens.   
  
It was rare for any one person to visit this place more than once in a lifetime if they were anything other than a mage or friend. Julia had visited him about 15 times in the last twenty years and that was more than most, he considered her a good friend along with anyone in her family. A long time ago she had been caught in a magical trap that was set to kill her husband, Theodore Diggers. It had been a complete accident that she was caught at all and it had exiled her to Jade, away from her family and her love, only once a year could she see them and that was through a portal that formed in one of his prayer rooms. From this room she was able to move between the planes and visit her family for exactly twenty four hours.  
  
She had never told him of the curse, he didn't know why and respected her privacy enough not to ask. There were things he didn't want others to know about him too, so he kind of understood. Only once had he shown her his greatest secret and that had been done without words, his special rooms were for those he trusted. His observatory was his alone and off limits to everybody, but his gardens were open to a rare few and Julia was one of those, she had requested earlier that Ranma be allowed to see them. At first he had been hesitant because of what Ranma had gone through just a few days before, but changed his mind when she gave him that look that turned his iron hard will to jelly. As a troll he cared about people way to much, but it was better that way in his opinion.  
  
Brod knuckled his way across the room as the small part continued all around him, waving and acknowledging everyone that said something to him. Eventually he reached the spot where Ranma was sitting and motioned for him and Sheila to follow him deeper into the tower. They shrugged and were soon on his heels as he passed through the doors that led to the room that Ranma had trained in. Brod watched as he stopped and hesitated for a second and looked at him for an explanation.  
  
"Where are we going?"  
  
"There is a place inside that Julia asked me to show you, I don't show it to very many people, but she thought it would help you to relax a little."  
  
"Am I allowed to see it too?" Sheila asked.  
  
Brod turned his bald head to her and thought about it for a few seconds and shrugged, "So long as you respect the place I won't mind if you go in."  
  
"I promise." Sheila and Ranma said.  
  
"Good enough, it took me years to get the place just right working on my own and I rarely show it to anyone because of that very reason." From there he led them past the area where Ranma had trained, they had teleported the cats back to where they had got them in the first place, and moved into a section that gave Ranma's senses a weird feeling.  
  
He looked about the hall they were walking down, his senses trying to figure out what was different. It wasn't a bad feeling, but a feeling like he was missing something obvious and important. "..."  
  
"Brod, where are all the torches. There seems to be plenty of light in this hall, but I don't see any torches like you used in other areas of the tower." Sheila pointed out as she looked around.  
  
Brod pointed to the quartz that ran along the walls and ceiling. "That quartz originates in the room I'm taking you too, I cast some spells on it and it works like a large light spell, though it's brighter in room up ahead."  
  
"What would you need with all that light?" Ranma asked.  
  
"You'll see in a minute."  
  
At the end of the long hall they arrived at a huge stone door, Brod actually had to lean against it to make it open enough to let them into the room. The instant it cracked even a little bit the whole hall was filled with light, enough to almost blind them, but Brod ignored it as he moved inside and beckoned for them to follow him. Squinting against the light the stepped through the door and found that effect was deliberate, once past the door the whole room opened up in front of them and they gasped in awe.  
  
There were flowers and trees for as far as the could see, they could even here some animals running around in the bushes, birds in the trees, and light shining from the far side of the room that lit the place up as bright as day. It was probably one of the most beautiful things Ranma and Sheila had ever seen and they were both well traveled enough to have seen quite a bit. Brod smiled at them for a few seconds as they took in the garden for the first time, then he motioned for them to follow him deeper into the room, they had to scramble to catch up with him. They followed a gravel path through the trees for a few minutes, then they entered the center of the room. Water could be heard as they moved through the trees, they eventually reached an over look that took placed them right above a forty foot water fall with a large pond down below them.  
  
"This is incredible!" Sheila gasped.  
  
"How can such a thing exist inside the cliff side?" Ranma asked as he looked down, he resisted this sudden urge to kick a rock off the edge to see how far it would fall.  
  
"I've got books here at the tower that describe the rudiments of magic that allow Seer's Hamlet to be held in it's pocket dimension, I used the same idea for this place when I created it some years ago. I built this place so that I could come here to relax and think about some of my problems, it calms the soul and allows me to express my other skills."  
  
"Can we look around?"   
  
"Sure, it's why I bought you here. After what you went through to master that horrible technique I think you deserve a few hours in here at least. Enjoy yourselves while you're here, go swimming, play in the trees and have fun, I don't mind what you do so long as you don't destroy anything permanently." Brod said with a smile and knuckled his way back down the trail, he turned just before he vanished from sight. "Keep following the path and it will take you all over the room, I have several things on display in here that you might find interesting if you know what you're looking at!"  
  
Ranma waved and turned to Sheila and realized they were alone.  
  
Sheila waved and turned to Ranma and realized she was alone, with Ranma.  
  
"...Um..." They said at the same time and blushed as they suddenly found their hands quite interesting.  
  
"D-do you w-want to look a-around?" Ranma stuttered out.  
  
"I w-would like that." She said hesitantly.  
  
"Cool, then come on, let's see what he was talking about." Ranma said and set off down the trail, it wound it's way around the water with a small bridge.   
  
Sheila gawked at the boy and growled under her breath for not acting like she was expecting him to, why were all men so hard to understand? Then she had to rush to catch up with him before he all but disappeared from sight among the trees. She caught up to him a few seconds later as he stopped in front of a small stone pillar with a tiny statue on it, the thing had to be one of the oddest things she had ever seen before.  
  
It was made up of a dark stone she hadn't ever seen before, shaped to make the statue look like a kind of formless mass, kind of like modern art. Ranma was leaning over the statue to get a better look at the thing, he had a weird look on his face as he tried to figure out what it was. He walked around the things several times, kneeled down and studied it for a while, and looked completely confused though most of it as he wondered why Brod would put such a thing here in his garden. That is, unless the thing represented what it actually looked like and if that was so, then Brod had a weird sense of humor.  
  
"What's wrong Ranma?" Sheila asked.  
  
"What is this thing?"  
  
"I'm not sure, it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before."  
  
She knelt down beside Ranma to take a better look at the thing, carved right into the side of the stone pillar was a small plaque with some strange writing on it. Sheila took a closer look at it by running her fingers over it, but the writing was in a language she had never seen before so translating it was impossible. "I can't make out what this says."  
  
"It's probably in Brod's native language."  
  
"Maybe it is, it's a hard language to understand. Most trolls use common whenever they are out in the world."  
  
"Do you think I should tell Brod that his statue looks like a large pile of..."  
  
"NO!" Sheila said and punched him in the arm. "That would be rude, unforgivable, and a very stupid thing to do Ranma!"  
  
"Okay, okay, no need to yell."  
  
Sheila snorted as she turned to smile at him. "Even if it's true."   
  
"Um..." Ranma said nervously.  
  
She blinked, this boy was so hard to read at times. "What's wrong Ranma?"  
  
"Why's it start'n to glow like that?" Ranma said and pointed at the statue.  
  
"What are you..." Sheila started as she turned to look at the thing. "What the hell?"  
  
The 'strangely' shaped statue was sitting there innocently, just starting to glow a soft bluish black color. She stood up and moved back, trying to pull Ranma with her, but he didn't budge. Then the glow flared and washed over them in a wave, blinding them almost completely and causing her to lose her balance. Sheila crashed to the floor and dragged Ranma with her, his hands slammed down on either side of her head as he tried to control his fall. Their foreheads slammed together with a thump, Ranma lay there for several seconds shaking his head to clear it.  
  
Sheila blushed as the realized what they must have looked like with him between her legs that way. "Um...Ranma?"  
  
"Aw man, that hurt worse than being hit in the head with a two by four." Ranma mumbled.  
  
"What did you Say?!" Sheila snapped.  
  
Ranma seemed to ignore her as he lay there, he seemed to be perfectly comfortable using her as a bed. "What in the world is your head made out of, metal?" Ranma groaned in pain.  
  
"Um...I'm in my hybrid form right now Ranma, a blow like that wouldn't even faze me in the least, though you did hurt me a little, it was almost instantly gone due to my regeneration ability." Sheila said with a blush, she was beginning to heat up and she liked the way Ranma felt against her. Then Ranma chose that time to roll off of her and stand up, he was rubbing his forehead, there was a large red welt beginning to form. She didn't know whether to be insulted or relieved that he was off her, so she ignored the odd feeling and stood up as well.  
  
"Where in the heck are we?" Ranma asked as he looked around.  
  
Sheila looked around and noticed for the first time that they weren't in the garden anymore, but a small cave full of sand and shells. "What the heck?"  
  
There was sunlight coming through the entrance to the cave and Ranma moved over there to see where they were, then he ran into an invisible wall that ran right across the front of the cave. "Ouch!" He muttered and rubbed his nose.  
  
"What the heck is going on here?" Sheila asked as she ran her hand over the wall, it was completely invisible, so she could see out over the grassy plane outside the cave and about a mile or so down, it ran for several miles before it hit another mountain. She looked up into the sky and gasped, Ranma moved over and looked as well and gaped a what they had seen.  
  
They were looking at several ships as they hovered above the plane below then, Sheila had never seen anything like these before, they were larger than most cities and were glowing with a faint aura of power. Ranma just gaped, he'd been exposed to a number of things over the last few months, but his had to take the cake for the weirdest yet. Learning about magic had been a wake up call after he received his curse, but seeing this put that on a whole new level of weirdness. Those ships up there, nearly two dozen large ones and countless little ones were giving him the creeps and setting off his danger sense.  
  
"Look at that Ranma, they're landing over by those mountains on the far side of the valley." Sheila said.  
  
Then they had to blink in surprise as the mountain seemed to shudder and opened up to reveal a large metal interior, like hanger bay, the large ships floated down and vanished within one at at time while the smaller ships seemed to swarm around and entered the mountain from the other side and vanish. "This is your world Sheila, where are we?" Ranma asked.  
  
"I don't know, I don't think I've ever been to a place like this before."  
  
"Do you recognize those ships?"  
  
"No, technology like that is forbidden on Jade."  
  
"If only we could get out of this cave, I want to go over there and see what's going on." Ranma said as he punched the invisible wall with no effect.  
  
Sheila sighed, this situation was starting to frighten her just a little bit, but she had to be strong and be able to report this back to her Brod and the Edge Guard. Brod had told them this place was safe and that they could relax here, that suggested that he had lied to them or that he didn't know his art work could do things like this. This reminded her of the ancient magic her people had used generations before, back when all the non-human races had been at war with each other. Back in the first golden age of magic, discovery items like this had been very common place and used for amusement. That is if she remembered some of her magical history correctly, but most of those had stopped working long ago.   
  
"What's that?" Ranma asked and pointed out side.  
  
Turning back, Sheila looked where he was pointing and at first didn't see anything, but that quickly changed as she saw movement at the base of the far mountain where the ships had landed. It had closed up while she was thinking and now had a number of people moving around the base. This had to be the strangest things yet, they were moving at superfast speed as they performed jobs of some kind, as she watched the sky seemed to flicker a little and after a few minutes a large palace began to take place. As this was nearing completion they watched as several other building started to take shape and spread out from the palace, even stranger was the fact that these weren't simple wood and stone houses with thatch roofs like she was used to, but like something from the Earth realm of modern day.  
  
"This is like watching a film in fast forward." Ranma muttered, recalling some of the movies he had seen in his youth.  
  
"Huh?" Sheila asked.  
  
"Look how fast they are going, it's like a movie on fast forward or something like that."  
  
"A movie...Oh! I know what this is now!" Sheila yelled in relief.  
  
"What?"  
  
"It's a projection stone, it's showing us a scene from way in the past." Sheila said and hopped around in relief. Then she turned back to the invisible wall, her eyes widened and she screamed in pure terror.  
  
Ranma jumped forward as she turned around and tried to run from whatever it was she saw out there, she crashed into Ranma as he grabbed her in confusion and continued to scream. "What is it what's wrong?!"  
  
Sheila just continued to scream, she broke from Ranma's arms and crawled into the back of the cave, curled up into a fetal position, and started shivering and whimpering. To say Ranma was surprised would be and understatement, he was completely shocked that his friend could act like this. He turned to look outside and saw that the city was going up still, though it looked like they were building a large stadium now, quite a large one. There were large droves of humanoids flowing over everything like ants and at this distance it was hard to make out details.  
  
Looking closer, Ranma noticed that the humanoids were being treated like slaves by these larger things. He wasn't to sure what they were, but they seemed to be guiding the building of the city while torturing the humans. Ranma still didn't see what would make her act like this, this was a 'movie' so there shouldn't have been anything out there that hadn't happened already, so what had set this off? He wanted to help, but if she wouldn't let him touch him he had find some other way to do it. His mind sparked a bit and he considered the fact that she might have seen something out there that he didn't understand, this was her world after all and with all the different races running around he was a little out of his depth.  
  
That possibility seemed to be a little ridiculous though, there wasn't anybody out there that he couldn't take and those strange slavers seemed to be the biggest threat. He studied them as best he could and noticed that they seemed to be made up of darkness, they didn't move as a normal person would, but flowed around and used this to their advantage. From a fighters stand point they were fascinating and would have been a lot of fun to fight since they weren't human, but seemed to be dependent on their technology to do anything.  
  
By this time the city had filled the entire valley and he could tell that things were slowing down a little on the play back, those things seemed to be everywhere as they kept the humanoids in check. Ranma already didn't like them, but still didn't see the problem that was causing Sheila to be afraid of this. He walked over and sat down beside Sheila, she was still shiveirng and even shedding a bit, so he just let her latch onto him and as she calmed down. After about half an hour there was a flash of light and they suddenly found themselves back in the garden, sitting on the ground in front of the statue.  
  
Ranma breathed a sigh of relief, whatever had happened was over and they could get out of this crazy place, he helped Sheila to her feet. She was still nervous, but seemed to be calming down quite fast now that they were out of that place. He took a second to dust himself off before glancing at the pillar again, from what he could see the thing looked just like it had before it decided to show them that city being built. Though he kind of regretted missing the last of the thing, he wondered what he might have missed if he'd seen the whole thing. Sheila hadn't really been harmed, just scared by something that he didn't understand, he wanted to know what that was too.  
  
"So Sheila, what scared you so bad that you couldn't even look at it?"  
  
The nervous werejaguar looked at him as if he was stupidest thing on the face of the planet, then took a deep breath when she noticed that his eyes seemed to show that his question was completely innocent, he really didn't understand what he'd just seen. She was a little embarrassed by her reaction, but it had been the last things she had ever expected to see and her hair was still standing on end from seeing that horror brought to life. "You really don't know do you Ranma?"  
  
He shook his head.  
  
"Do you know anything of Jade's history Ranma?"  
  
"Not really, just that you guys don't like technology all that much and that there are races here that are not on Earth, Elves, Dwarves, werecats, and even magic users, things like that are almost unheard of on Earth."  
  
"I suppose that is probably why you didn't understand what you saw in that vision Ranma, that was a scene out of the distant past, when this planets greatest conquerors ruled over us and used all the races as slave labor."  
  
Ranma nodded. "I'd noticed that there were some dark thing in that playback that were keeping the humans as slaves."  
  
"Those Dark Things were Shadow's Ranma, the evilest and most destructive race to ever exist in our planets entire history. They had us as slaves for countless generations, they had doing all their work for them, killing, cooking, everything so that their lives could be spend doing other things. The history is to hard to even describe and even today is one of the things we tend to try and for get, if it hadn't been for the first Armsmaster we would most likely still be enslaved to the Shadows even today."  
  
Ranma looked a bit confused as he gazed at Sheila. "That still doesn't explain why you were so scared, that was a replay of something that happened long ago. So there wasn't anything there to be worried about."  
  
"Ranma, Shadows haven't been seen in hundreds of thousands of years and yet even today we are afraid of them and still use them as a kind of boogie man tale to scare our children straight, but one of the things that is known is that in all that time there hasn't been one Shadow seen on this planet, we didn't know what they looked like anymore because all the pictures of them have been lost over time. I saw one of them Ranma, I saw what they looked like and how horrible they were and that image will haunt me for the rest of my life." Sheila sobbed out.  
  
If there is one thing that Ranma can't stand it's a crying girl, she hadn't really been crying in the cave and he'd been a bit distracted at the time. So he carefully drew her into a hug and let her cry for several minutes as she let out the emotions she was trying to control, at least her reaction made more sense to him now that she had explained it a bit. He needed a way to distract her from that strange statue and could only come up one thing as he stood there holding her.   
  
"Let's see what else he's got floating around here?"  
  
With a loud sniff, Sheila nodded. "Alright, I just hope that is the last time I encounter one of those evil things."  
  
"You'll be alright." Ranma said and patter her on the shoulder, they moved on and followed the path around the large garden for several more minutes, ducking around some trees and wondering how long it had taken the old troll to build this place and why he had placed a magical item like that on display. Eventually they reached a small path that seemed to lead them right into a marble structure of some kind, they headed on in to see what else they would find. Sheila wasn't all that pleased to find another pillar and statue, but was relieved when she saw who it was a statue of. This one was a lot bigger than the last one, way bigger, it towered above them by almost ten feet. The pillar came up to Ranma's waist, the statue was of a huge man bulging with muscles looking majestic and dangerous as his long hair waved in the wind behind him. Sheila sighed and kneeled down to get a better look at the plaque at the base of the statue and found that this one was in elfish.  
  
"Let's see here, this is a statue of Matta, the first Armsmaster of Jade and one of it's most powerful warriors. He freed us from the first scourge and led all the people of Jade out of slavery and to freedom." Sheila read out loud, there was a hint of awe in her voice as she realized what she had just read.  
  
Ranma looked up at the man and wondered how someone with so much muscle mass could be that good a fighter. All the strength in the world was useless in the face of a foe that was fast and cunning. "This is the guy that saved all of you from those Shadow things?"  
  
"I guess so, I've never seen a statue to him before." Sheila muttered as she took a closer look. "It's been a very long time since he was alive, a few millennia actually, so he's degenerated into a legend just as the Shadows have. Even today we have an Armsmaster around just incase they are needed again and only the best of the best can hold that title, Master Julia currently holds that honorable position."  
  
This statue, unlike the last one didn't seem to be magical at all and Ranma wasn't about to try and find out. All this magic was making him nervous, he wanted to get back to things he understood. For now he held his peace as Sheila spent the rest of their walk though the garden telling him about the history of Jade and some of the more notable fighters of this generations. The one Ranma found the most interesting was a the dwarf G'nolga and her rivalry with Master Julia, he wanted to smack her one for what she had done to his teacher in the latest Tournament of Arms. He was also kind of curious about some of the other fighters that were mentioned, they all sounded like they would be a lot of fun to fight.  
  
"So what did you two think of our world now?"  
  
"You must lead an interesting life."  
  
"I'm rarely bored for very long, that's for sure, and with all these bandits running around lately we haven't had to much time off lately." Sheila said with a laugh.  
  
Ranma shrugged, he'd had a good time with Sheila even before that strange statue had shown them that scene from the past. "That first statue still has me thinking though..." He mussed to himself.  
  
Sheila punched him in the shoulder again. "Stop that, I don't even want to think about that stupid thing again."  
  
"Um...yeah."  
  
Brod stood up and opened the door for them as they approached. "So what did you think of my Garden?"  
  
"That magical statue of yours was a dirty trick Brod, it nearly scared me to death." Sheila snapped.  
  
He gave her a blank look. "What magic statue? I don't have any here in the Garden, all of my magical items are in the vault."  
  
"That first one down the path, the one that looks like a pile of..." Ranma started, but Sheila punched him in the arm again.  
  
"Stop that!"   
  
Ranma blushed a little. "Um...okay."  
  
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, the only statue I have in the whole garden is of the First Armsmaster and it isn't magical in the least, kind of a bad likeness as well, I've seen much better."  
  
"Not that one, the one just down the path there." Ranma said and pointed.  
  
Brod looked confused again. "Could you show me?"  
  
A few minutes later they were at the spot where the first statue had been, but there was nothing there but a large rock. Sheila was almost as confused as Brod as they searched the area over, but after several minutes they hadn't found a thing. Ranma was all over the place, in the trees, the bushes, looking for the thing that had scared Sheila so bad, but it seemed to have vanished in thin air. Even his enhanced senses seemed to be at a loss, there was no sign of the thing and they all had to give up a few minutes later.  
  
"I don't understand." Ranma and Sheila said.  
  
"I'm not sure what you saw, but I do know something was here even if we can't find it." Brod said.  
  
"How?!"   
  
Brod laughed a little, I cast a detect magic spell and this whole area is giving off a reading, it's barely readable, but it's there. I'll look into it a little more to see if I can find out what happened. Now, I'm glad you liked the garden anyway, but most everyone has gone to bed. You might want to retire for the night as well, it's pretty late and you do have things to do later on today."  
  
"That sounds like a good idea." Ranma said with a sudden yawn.   
  
Sheila agreed and stretched a little as she yawned, it was a good trick to play so that she could catch Ranma's attention, then she realized two things wrong with her plan. One was that she was in her werejaguar form and it was to small to be of much use, and second, Ranma had left the room without inviting her along. He'd done it to her again, she sighed loudly and heard Brod chuckle again as they moved out of the room.   
  
"That jerk!!"  
  
"He'll grow out of it."  
  
"He doesn't have a clue what's going on does he?" Sheila muttered.  
  
"I've known a lot of humans like your friend there, he acts like that because no one has ever placed him in a situation where he could learn what you what him to know. Julia said he grew up really isolated from the rest of the world as his father pushed him to be the best fighter of his generation."  
  
"He can't be that naive."  
  
"He is only inexperienced Sheila, you might have to take the first step if you want a relationship.  
  
"Oh like that would help, the only way he would notice a girl is if I hit him over the head with a board." Sheila muttered.  
  
Brod chuckled again, this time with a deep rumble to his laugh. "Those kind of men exist Sheila and that is exactly the kind of guy Ranma is, remember how he was raised."  
  
"We'll see about that. Things started out pretty good, but then he seemed to forget I existed, it was weird."  
  
"He was probably embarrassed."  
  
"Hmph!!"  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
Ending Notes - As I mentioned above I have lots done, in fact I have most of chapter 06 already done. It just needs to be expanded a bit and edited to make it ready to be posted.   
  
Okay, if you know anything about Gold Digger, you'll notice that I gave a bit of a Jade's history from long ago. This stuff wasn't mentioned all that much in the comic so I had to improvise a bit on things. The Shadow's are a race in name only, I can't recall them ever being described so I took a guess when describing them. I do know that they were kind of like the alien race from Indepencence Day, and relied very heavily on their technology for most everything they did and had the locals completely out classed for thousands of years before they were brought down by the First Armsmaster. The Shadows designed and build several statiums at various points on Jade and held gladitorial matches there with special deviced that made magic next to useless inside the structure.  
  
Weaponmasters were some of the top fighter slaves of the shadows from each region that had a stadium, of these, on slave would be the best of them all and he was called and Armsmaster. It was a position that few wanted because even if they there good fighters, they were still slaves to these things an were kept in line through harsh means. Then Matta showed up (No name is ever given so I Made it up) and lead a battle of some kind that kicked the Shadows off the planet, how he did this is completly unknown, but I do know that he access to special weapons of magic and technology that was used to finally purge the Shadows and their rule of the planet.  
  
A lot of Jade's history isn't really mentioned in the comics and I've had to make suff up or make some educated guesses about things. I won't be doing this much, but I have an idea for a chapter or two of this story that will deal with Jade and a major adventure for Ranma, I'll explain more on that later.   
  
You'll notice that Ranma is still growing in this chapter, even with his training he is still learning to do things and hasn't become all powerful. I like this trend and will keep it up for a bit of realizm, on that note, I want to know if anyone wants me to focus on any of the other characters like Britanny, Gina, or even Stripe (Britanny's husband) as the story goes along. One of the things I like about Gold Digger is that expanding on the various characters is pretty easy, so let me know if there is anything you want to see. ^_^  
  
C. Rose  
5\25\02 


	6. Chapter 06

Notes - Here's the new chapter I promised everybody, it's a bit late but I had to expand it more than I realized and it took just a tad longer. It came out a lot better than I expected and allowed me to take care of another loose end. Let me know what you think, its a bit long like most to the chapters for this story so take your time and enjoy ^_^  
  
If you should happen to spot any glaring mistakes that I missed let me know and I'll get them fixed.  
  
Thanks  
  
http://home.talkcity.com/BookmarkBlvd/crose9/  
  
**********  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 06  
Cory D. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c) 2002  
**********  
  
The sun had just gone down over the Amazon village when Gina crawled out from an access tunnel that led back behind the power plant where she had been installing some of the special equipment. Her friend Penny had just finished installing the finishing touches to the building while she tightened the last bolt and inserted the last chip of a computer that would monitor the station's power use and efficiency over the next few months, sending the information back to her larger system back in Atlanta after bouncing off a couple of satellites Penny had in orbit for various uses. She was pleased with the way things had been working out lately, getting things finished off a few days before schedule was always a treat as well, especially when the locals were starting to give hints that they had over stayed their welcome.  
  
Gina wasn't to worried about that though, she knew that the Amazons wouldn't run them off when they had asked for the Plant to be built in the first place. She had been taking steps to be careful though, just to make sure they didn't push the Amazons to far. These woman had to be some of the strangest groups she had ever met, everything about their culture was used to contradict the basic freedoms that most took for granted and used against anyone that rubbed them the wrong way. She was just glad that she had been smart enough to get Ryan, Ranma, and Ace out of the valley before they got themselves into trouble. That hadn't stopped one problem though, her sister Brianna was starting to get on people's nerves.  
  
Doing something about it though was almost impossible, Brianna had a mind of her own and liked to 'play' around a little. The singing Peebo's had been a hilarious fight, but when the song they were singing was from Nine Inch Nails and they were timing their detonations for every tenth back beat it gave a new meaning to the songs she used. For all of Brianna's eccentric ways, she was very good at what she did and knew how to set these things up perfectly. Now that things were almost finished she knew it was only a matter of time before something weird happened. She looked outside and saw he sister as she did some finishing touches on the walls of the building. Gina just hoped they could avoid that little problem they had to fix a few days before, she really shouldn't have given Brianna that much free reign to what she wanted with the Plant's over all look.  
  
Outside, Brianna was working with a paint brush to give the outside walls of the plant a natural look with the help of a few dozen of her Peebos. She didn't seem to be quite happy with what she was doing, but that was after Gina had chewed her out for painting the whole place camouflage green, brown, and black to let it blend in with it's background. This was complete with camouflage netting and a couple of hidden access doors at either side of the water fall so that there a couple of hidden back doors could be used in an emergency. Brianna had thought it was a great idea considering that the Amazons were at war almost constantly with the other people in the small valley.   
  
It seemed that this power plant was supposed to have limited use to several of the local villages and keeping it a secret had never been a part of the plan. Some of the elders had gotten a good laugh at what Brianna had pulled off, but a little 'push' from Gina and she had taken the whole thing down. Complaining about how much of a waste it was to do so, and had the whole place repainted in a natural stone like covering, using shadows to give the flat walls a more natural look while not making the whole place just disappear from sight. She had several of her Peebos were out working on the grounds, clipping grass, edging thing along the side walk, pulling weeds, and chasing off small animals that thought they could just leave smelly pieces of themselves all over the place without a care.  
  
Not while she was around, no sir.   
  
"That's much better Brianna, though I still think simple light green would've been sufficient." Gina said as she stepped outside to see how things were going.  
  
"It still needs something."   
  
"Like what? It looks like you carved the whole thing out of the side fo the hill right now."  
  
Brianna started pacing back and forth, looking the building over with a critical eye of a professional. Then stopped and smirked as she grabbed up some paint and wandered over to the edge of the building and...signed it with a flourish! She giggled as she dotted the 'i' in her name and painted some little hearts around it for better effect, some of her Peebo's stopped to 'Ooh' and 'Ahh' her handy work. Gina just sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose, and shook her head. She got a headache whenever she had to leave something like this up to her sister. It always turned out weird if she didn't keep an eye on her every step of the way, and boy had she been to busy to do just that.  
  
"That's great Brianna." Gina said with another sigh.  
  
She grinned happily. "Isn't it?!" She squealed and bounced around a bit.  
  
"Right, anyway, were all done so we need to start this thing up."  
  
Brianna stopped bouncing around and landed by the door. "You're all done?"  
  
"Yep, we just need to turn it onaAAhaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!" Gina said and screamed as Cologne tapped her in back.  
  
"Excellent! I was wondering just how long this would take." The old woman said with a smirk as Gina finished having a panic attack and glared at her.  
  
"Why did you do that?"  
  
Cologne grinned and started hopping to the front entrance, giving all the Peebo's a strange look. "Just getting your attention dear, now let's see this monstrosity in action."  
  
"Good one granny!" Brianna said with a smirk of her own, she stuck her tongue out at Gina.  
  
Gina ignored her sister as she followed the old woman into the building, Penny was already giving her the tour when she caught up. Leading them all through the various rooms and out side to the platform that over looked the edge of the water fall that had a large wheel set up to be lowered into the water. Once it started turning it would provide enough power to power most of the village. Cologne was impressed, she hadn't expected them to build anything that was so simple that anyone in the village could operate it easily. Well so long as they could read the little tag below each of the buttons, otherwise when the machine got going the whole thing would be self sufficient. Requiring only a bit of maintenance every now and then.  
  
"I thought this thing would be more complicated."  
  
"I thought about giving you something a lot more complicated, but decided that the easier it was to understand, the better. Once the wheel starts to turn everything inside will be powered and you can expand from there, there are several books we're leaving with you that can be used to set things up however you want."  
  
Looking down from the over look of the giant wheel and the river below them, Cologne could see a series of cables holding the wheel in place, the cables led up to one tied to the edge of the platform they were all standing on. She gave the knot a tap when Penny said she could and watched as the wheel slowly lowered itself into the water and slowly started spinning, at first things stayed dark, but after a little while she started to see that the lights around them started flickering on and off. Cologne had never seen moving Christmas lights before, but Gina and Penny had and they tried to hit Brianna across the back of her head when she giggled happily, but she ducked and ran off before they could catch her.  
  
"Brianna you get back here and take those down!" Gina yelled.  
  
Penny just groaned.  
  
"Sorry about that Elder, she gets bored and things like this happen." Gina said, glaring in the direction her sister had run off in.  
  
Cologne just cackled, enjoying the lights as they made several passes around the roof of the building, to the ground, down around the landing area where that helicopter hat been dropping off materials for the last few weeks and back around to the building for another pass. She didn't mind and it was kind of a celebration, these outsiders would be out of her hair by noon tomorrow when their ride showed up one final time so she could afford to be patient and it wasn't like she had any problems with then, something like this should have taken much longer to build so this was working out great from every turn.  
  
"That's okay, it looks like you did an excellent job. Were there any major problems that you had to deal with?"  
  
"Naw, the biggest thing that happened was that I lost one of my Robots."  
  
Cologne had heard about that from some of the girls watching the construction, but hadn't thought much of it at the time. "Oh?"  
  
"I'm still not sure what happened, but something turned poor #42 into a pile of scrap. I wasn't even able to salvage his main computer, his whole body was crushed beyond repair. It might have been an animal, but it was to far gone to really tell."  
  
"What could do such a thing?" Cologne asked.  
  
"I have no idea, some kind of large cat or a bear, I've had the rest of the bots on a high level of alert ever since, but there is only so much they can do." Gina said carefully, she had received a warning from one of the others about a large man with a weapon, but so far no evidence has come up to support it.  
  
Those robots fascinated Cologne, she had never encountered anything like them in her 300 years of life. They were like human beings in shape only, they had no aura to speak up and yet they could hold a conversation as easily as she could. These girls were one strange contradiction after another, if this one could create life like robots, what could the others do when they put their minds to something? The other sister was just plain dangerous, tossing about explosives like they were pieces of candy the couldn't hurt anybody. Yet she had taken great delight in leveling one of the more treacherous parts of the stream just blow the overlook she was standing upon, Cologne still remembered the girl's laughter as the set off the blasts.  
  
The only thing that had kept Lo Sion and her followers from going completely ballistic when she did this was because Brianna had saved those little girls from the Musk, the Elders were more than happy to give the girl credit and leeway to do what she wanted. Cologne understood outsiders a bit better than those that had spent their lives in the village and realized that Brianna may have seemed to be a bit erratic, but she took steps to make sure no one would be hurt in one of her schemes. Even if those steps were a little weird at time and her little robots were as interesting as those human like robots that were wandering around.  
  
Half the girls in the village started to avoided her when she leveled several acres of land in less than a second by pressing a button, some of them had never seen anything like it before. Yet this same girl had been the one that saved those younglings from being captured from the musk with one of her robots, those things had so much potential, but to make them required way more technology than she wanted in the village at this time, they had to take this slowly. Some of the other elders were complaining about this project ruining their chances of survival for more than a few generations. Cologne had been forced to yell at more than one of the Elders to make sure this project happened and they still refused to believe that their culture was on the verge of extinction. This was but the first step they would need to make sure they would survive another two or three thousand years, they had to adapt with the times or suffer like the Phoenix were.  
  
"Excellent work Miss. Diggers, the robots at the village are almost done as well. Just how long until you are completely finished?"  
  
Gina gave it a few seconds of thought. "I'd say some time today, all that's left is final checks to make sure everything is running like it should."  
  
Cologne nodded as she started to hop off. "I'm looking forward to seeing this place up and running at full power tomorrow."  
  
"We'll be ready, Elder." Gina called out.  
  
Penny was yawning a little as she walked out of the building, they had been up since ust before sunrise making sure everything was ready without the power on. Low power tests from a couple of generators had shown that everything was in perfect working order, but the Elders didn't need to know about them. With everything running they had to make sure the lines could handle the power load comfortably. She was talking on one of the portable phones that Gina had designed for keeping in contact with her sisters when they were off planet or in a different dimension like Jade or the Undead Realm. They didn't work all that great, but good enough for a few minutes contact before things started to degrade the signal. Penny handed her the phone with a grin. "It's your mother."  
  
"Thanks Penny." Gina said as she took the phone. "Hello?"  
  
"Gina."   
  
"Hi Mom!"  
  
"I was just calling to let you know that we will be returning tomorrow."  
  
"You've been there for about a month now, are you finished already?"  
  
"Yep, there isn't anything left to do now that Ranma has mastered his problem."  
  
"Were there any complications?"  
  
"We had a run in with one of the local criminals, that one I owe a beating, Hanza."  
  
"What did you do to her?" Gina gasped.  
  
"Not a thing, Ranma got to her before I could get there."  
  
"He won?"  
  
"Not really, he had her beat until she started to use magic against him and that was the end of that."  
  
Gina could hear the amusement in her mom's voice. "Well at least he survived."  
  
"True, the Edge Guard showed up."  
  
"Cool!!"  
  
"Yeah, Sheila has taken quite a liking to Ranma too."  
  
"That's great, he's much better for her than that playboy Tirga that she likes."  
  
"Maybe, he still has that clueless streak and it's confusing the heck out of her. She pouts every time he does something she doesn't expect...crap, the charge says this things is about to cut off."  
  
"Alright, see you tomorrow mom."  
  
"Bye...bzzzzzzzz." The phone buzzed as one end lost contact and Gina tapped the off button., she handed it back to Penny. "Look like everybody will be back tomorrow morning sometime."  
  
"Oh? Did they say anything about Charlotte?"  
  
Gina blinked and adjusted her glasses. "Nope, I forgot to ask, but from the sounds of thing they didn't have very many problems."  
  
"That's good, those Phoenix were giving me the creeps."  
  
Gina shrugged. "You never know, they might have been a good influence on her."  
  
"No way, all they talked about was how bad humans were and how they didn't like our kind, I didn't want Charlotte to be like that. I've spent to much time getting her to show a little back bone when she fights, turning her into a someone like them just wouldn't work." Penny said with a shake of her head as they started to walk back into the building.   
  
For the most part Gina agreed with Penny, but she recalled the guards that the Kiima girl had brought with her that one time. Those guys had been Yummy looking, to bad they had refused to even notice her when she walked by them in her favorite adventuring outfit that showed off her body. That had been just after Ryan left though, a couple days after Ranma had defeated him with that fight. He hadn't stopped complaining either, it had been really irritating to listen to as well. Luckily Ace had stopped by and she had a chance to get rid of him for a few days. That and she had noticed several of the Amazons giving him this look she had learned to recognize.  
  
It was a lot better that he wasn't around anymore.  
  
**********  
  
Cold emotionless eyes watched the as Gina and Penny finished their latest project and he wondered if there was some way he could take his revenge on them in a way that would bring pain to his true enemy. He moved through the trees and bushes as slowly as he could to keep from being noticed, several encounters with the locals had brought him nothing but irritation. They couldn't stop him anymore, but he had learned pretty quick that defeating them was a 'bad' idea. He knew Chinese so understanding them talking about being defeated in combat, just to find a husband, had sent chills down his spine.  
  
Daishi sighed as he eyed Gina Diggers once more, she and her friends had humiliated him more than once over the last few years, especially her sister Britanny Diggers, and he'd been looking for a way to pay her back for some time now. Honor demanded that he strive to defeat only those who could fight back and Cheetah fit that bill to a tee, but he'd been forced to add Ranma to that list during their last meeting. His defeat at Ranma's hands had been as bad if not worse than anything the werecheetah had ever done to him. The last three weeks had been one nasty surprise after another for Daishi, swatted across his battle ground like a some kind of deformed baseball and landing in that spring had been a blow to his pride. He had been so close to winning that he thought he had the boy completely beat when it happened. The only reason he wasn't insane with rage was that he'd landed in a spring with the most amazing properties.  
  
It had been nothing but a small pool of mud, nearly dried out from too much sun and not enough access to the waters that fed the all the small springs in the valley, even the guide's map hadn't detailed it when he was collecting samples for Lord Talon. He had been changed by it though, his protective suit damaged in the fight and left him vulnerable to the water. What he had changed into had nearly given him a heart attack, it was something out of the legends of his people, one of the myths given life once more, all that power given to him by one little dip in the mud. He'd spent his first week trying to learn how to control his new body and finding ways to use it to his advantage. Luckily he'd read several stories that related his new form and applied that knowledge with ease, this form plus the tinkering that Lord Talon had done to his body allowed him to become a juggernaut of destructive power.  
  
Now as he watched the Diggers complete their project he had a feeling that Ranma would be returning sometime soon, the boy hadn't been around by the time he showed up, but knew that the Diggers wouldn't be leaving China without him. Watching them set up the place had been a real surprise as well, at first he was completely baffled, but the final addition of the large water wheel had been enough to figure out that they were setting up a primitive hydroelectric plant for the Amazons, though he didn't understand why exactly. Now that they were done, his time was running out, he felt that he had less than twenty four hours before things came to a head and his revenge would be at hand.  
  
Daishi gazed at the old woman that was standing on the over look above the waterfall, she seemed to be laughing about something. The elders of this place gave him the creeps, even with his current form he didn't feel all that safe around them. He would have to make sure there weren't any in the area when he did attack, he'd seen them teaching the younger fighters several times and knew they were incredibly good fighters, no matter how ugly they were. He could feel their Ki permeating the very air around the village, they were like barely contained hurricanes of power and he didn't want to be anywhere near one if he had any choice in the matter. He'd ever met anyone with that kind of ability at their beck and call and the one he was watching was right at the top of the list of those to avoid.  
  
He was strong, but even he knew his limits and had enough brains to know when he was out classed, no matter how much he wanted to dispute that idea he wasn't as stupid as some wanted to believe. With silent movements he used the shadows as he made his way deeper into the trees around the plant, he had already set some of his plans in motion a few days before by letting the Gina know that she wasn't as safe here as she seemed to think she was. Destroying that robot had been a lot of fun and given him a good idea of his new body's full strength, two blows and it had crumpled into a pile of scrap and he hadn't even hurt himself. He couldn't wait to do the same thing against Ranma and Britanny, he chuckled silently as he glanced at his larger than normal hands.  
  
With this new power of his he was going to be one of the strongest fighters in the world and there wasn't a thing that could stop him once he got going. He moved out of the area and avoided the traps that Gina had set up to capture him, those robots of hers had no subtlety so he wasn't all that worried and even if one of them did catch him off guard they weren't strong enough to hurt him now that he was stronger than ever. His revenge was going to be more satisfying than anything he had ever accomplished and he couldn't wait to pull it off, they were all going to pay for this.  
  
**********  
  
The sun was just rising above the horizon as Ranma completed his morning workout, he had fine layer of sweat covering his body as he took a second to relax with a cool down Kata. For once he wasn't wearing his shirt, but his workout this morning had been harder than normal as he pushed himself to the limit and beyond and it would have been drenched in sweat if had kept it on. After going to sleep the night before he'd only gotten a few hours sleep before he woke up, completely rested and wide awake. He figured he'd only gotten only four hours sleep, if that much before he got up to keep from being bored. He had been out her for hours trying to push his body to its very limits so that he could get a few more hours sleep, unfortunately his Ki was so strong now that he would have to do this for hours before he came close to being that tired.   
  
Ranma didn't really know if he liked that little fact or not, there were several things he had learned to enjoy over the years with his old man, eating and sleeping were at the top of hat list. Eventually he had given up, wandered outside he had stood beside the large magical torch that lit up the night around the front entrance to Brod's tower. To Ranma, it had been a long time since he stood in front of a large fire like this and he used it to relax after his work out was finished. He could still feel his Ki surging around inside him like an uncontrolled storm just waiting to be released, but he was getting better at keeping it under his power with every hour that went by. He figured it would take him several more weeks of hard training to get his Ki abilities under his complete control again, it was just to easy to access at the moment and he was worried he might hurt someone before he mastered it completely. Right now he was also happy that his old man wasn't around, about to sneak attack him at every opportunity that presented itself. He would most likely have killed the old fart completely by accident.   
  
His walk though Brod's garden had been very helpful to him and allowed him to get his mind off all his problems of late, but that magical statue he had been subjected to had caused him to see things a little differently as well. He wouldn't have thought much of the experience if Sheila hadn't reacted in such a strange way. Julia had been right about the garden though, he needed a break from his problems and that walk had helped him quite a bit. He had spent to much time with his guard on full alert and to many years under his old man's training to completely relax. All he really needed to do was let his mind rest every now and then, to let his guard down just the tiniest bit and let himself relax with no thoughts intruding upon his mind, this was why he meditated once or twice a week. Meditation was the best way for him to do this and it kept the old man from sneak attacking him, but with his power surging like this it was made things very tricky to do lately since his Ki tried to surge out of control when he even tried to relax now.   
  
Sitting down near the torch so that it's heat kept him warm in the early morning coolness, Ranma assumed a meditation position and calmed his mind as best he could now that he was somewhat exhausted. Though he could already feel his body returning to normal levels, he just didn't have the time to really push himself anymore without causing a problem. In this case he had just done a morning workout that would have put him down for most of the day just a few weeks before, but the cat fist made that nearly impossible now. He had so many things to think about now that he was done with that part of his training, something his old man would have frowned upon as well, it was a major change from the norm. His understanding of a particular ability had never really mattered to the old man, just as long as his skill was there and ready to be used whenever it was needed. No matter how many times he remembered his training under his old man and compared it to Julia's style, he always felt like the old man had cheated him of things he needed so that he could reach the skill level he needed to be the best and that took knowledge he had never been given.   
  
The biggest change he had noticed was that he had learned how to think for himself instead of depending on the old man like he used to, though there were still instances where he made a mistake and reacted without thought. He recalled that Gina had also cured him of some damage to his brain some months ago down in her lab. This had given him a weird outlook on the world since, to him nothing big had changed about himself other than an old wound had been healed, but that didn't explain why he was more curious about things than he used to be. Where before he would have dismissed them without much thought and gone back to his mindless training, kind of like a well trained dog, he now sought out things that would increase his knowledge. Even now Master Julia had him working to think for himself in a fight, in their training she wouldn't show him a new move unless he could thing of a way to improve his mind as well and that meant reading books. Luckily Brod had quite a library available to chose from on all kinds of subjects.  
  
He delved deeper into this mind with an ease that almost frightened him, but he kept it at bay. His mind was automatically interpreting things as pictures in his minds eye and they were perfectly clear and easy to tell apart. each of his emotions had a different color and seemed to be of a different size than the others. This reminded him of the conversation he'd had with Master Julia some weeks before when she explained that using emotions as a Ki focus tended to be dangerous. Making one emotion more powerful than the others and why he now used his will power instead, it made for much larger Ki reserves. He frowned a little when his senses told him that someone was approaching him, but before he could focus on it they called his name.  
  
"Ranma?"  
  
He opened his eyes and looked over to see Julia stepping outside, she was wearing a one of those short robes that most of the girls in the Diggers family liked to wear, it showed off her legs more than he needed to see. Ranma had seen her wearing the thing several times now and it always caught his eye, so it didn't bother him all that much, Britanny had cured him of that little problem around the first week of seeing her in those skin tight outfits she liked to wear so much, this was nothing compared to that.   
  
"Master Julia?"  
  
"Are you out here practicing again?"  
  
"Every day, rain or shine and without fail." Ranma said with a grin.  
  
"Is there a problem? Why are you out here so early?" Julia asked.  
  
Ranma shrugged. "My Ki is flaring out of control because of the Neko-Ken training and it's very hard to control, that's what I'm looking for, I don't' want to hurt anyone because of it. I'm using one of the little tricks Onoli showed me, so far they are working a little, but my Ki is so strong that the only way I'm going to get it under control is though some hard training."  
  
"I thought that might happen, you said it's easier to access now, Right?"  
  
"Yeah. I figure it will take a few weeks of careful training to get the extra power back under control."  
  
"That may not be enough." Julia pointed out.  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Remember, you've got to learn that magic from Theo when you've got the time, I believe that's what's making your Ki surge like this."  
  
"Oh yeah, he explained it to me. I no longer have the original curse either, that seems to have mixed with my soul and altered me in some way and made me more powerful."  
  
"Wild Talents are very rare these days Ranma, most people are no longer afraid of magic and are able to get people like you to a Mage that can give them the training they need. It's free after all, leaving people like that untrained is what caused so many problems with magic in the first place."  
  
"What kind of magic does a wild talent have?"   
  
"I don't know the specifics, Theo would be able to answer that better than I could." Julia said with a smirk.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, though I don't really want to learn magic."  
  
"I know Ranma, we're fighters and using magic doesn't seem like a very good idea. Almost dishonorable?"  
  
"That's it exactly, something like that would be cheating."  
  
"Ranma, my old Master, Master Leep, spent several years teaching me how to fight under some interesting circumstances and one of the biggest things he taught me was that using magic wasn't dishonorable."  
  
Ranma snorted. "You've got to be kidding me?"  
  
"No, it's all in how you look at it. Magic is just another form of combat that uses different rules, fighters like us train our bodies to amazing and incredible things almost without thought. Mage's do the same thing, except that they train their minds how to tap into magical energy and learn how to wield it."  
  
"That sounds more like an excuse to make someone over look the fact that magic has nothing to do with fighting and more to do with personal power." Ranma grumbled.  
  
Julia laughed. "You're closer than you think Ranma, but to be an effective fighter you have to know your enemies right?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Well then, if you had known more about magic and how it worked when you fought Hanza she wouldn't have been able to get the better of you by 'cheating' with her magic."  
  
"Humph!!"  
  
"Well you think about it Ranma, I have to get going before anyone else has a chance to use the baths." Julia said and headed back inside, she stopped for a second and called back to Ranma. "I almost forgot, we will be returning to Earth this morning."  
  
Ranma blinked in surprise, he hadn't even been thinking about going back to Earth just yet. "Oh, why is that?"  
  
"Were done here and Gina said she would be finished her project sometime yesterday, we'll head back there and pick up the girls before heading back home. Is that okay?"  
  
"Sure, I can train there as easily as here." Ranma said with a shrug.  
  
Julia nodded and headed inside as Ranma went back to meditating, but after about half an hour he found that he was to distracted to reach the calm state he needed for it. So he grabbed his shirt and draped it around his neck like a towel and headed inside, everyone was just starting to get up as he came in. He was so preoccupied that he completely missed the look that crossed Sheila's face when he walked by, the slow turn, the glance at muscled back that lingered all the way down to his ass, or the look of pure lust that would have done Tirga proud and that had upon occasion gotten him beat to within an inch of his life. Yep, Ranma was still oblivious to female attention, it meant nothing to him since girls weren't like that after all. Put him in a combat situation and he was near perfection, but when it came to girls he was a clueless moron. Yep.   
  
With a quiet sigh of disappointment she watched him until he was out of sight before she stepped into the bathroom and shut the door. He heard some movement and looked up to see that Julia was sitting in the large tub, it had been designed to accommodate Brod's large size, so up to three humans could sit in it easily with no one touching each other in any way. The werejaguar stripped out of her robe and slipped into the bath a little way from Julia, she smiled at her. "Hi, Master Julia."  
  
"You've got it bad don't you?" Julia said with a little smile.  
  
"Got what so bad?"  
  
Julia laughed. "You've fallen for Ranma."  
  
Sheila turned bright red, a feat that was very difficult for a werejaguar in her hybrid form. "I don't know what you're talking about."  
  
"Sure you don't."  
  
"I have not, he's just...cute." Sheila said, refusing to meet Julia's eyes.  
  
"You've been following him around like a puppy for the last couple of weeks, you even had a little fun with him when you had to go into the room where he was training." Julia pointed out.  
  
Sheila blushed again as she was reminded of the time she had 'played' with Ranma when he was in the Neko-ken, she hadn't had that much fun in years and she had been in her cat form to boot. "He's just a friend." She insisted.  
  
Julia smirked. "Well then this news won't be to much of a shock then."  
  
"News?" Sheila said and focused on Julia a little more, there was a slight hesitancy in her voice.  
  
"Were heading back to Earth today, Ranma only has a few more months to train with me before he has to go back to his..." Julia spat the name. "Father!"  
  
"You're leaving?" Sheila gasped, her heart suddenly pounding in fear.  
  
"Yeah, Gina should have just completed a project she was working on. We came here to take care of Ranma's Neko-Ken problem and to get out of Gina's hair while her and Penny worked on a project. Now that both are completed, we can head home and get things back to normal again."  
  
"I see."  
  
'The girl is on the verge of crying already.' Julia thought to herself. 'She's got it worse than I thought.'  
  
"Um...what don't you like about Ranma's father?" Sheila asked, attempting to change the subject.  
  
"The man isn't worthy of his son, he cares nothing about Ranma's safety or well being, only his own wants and needs matter. Theo attempted to correct that problem, but I think it's to ingrained in him to make much for a spell to make much of a difference in the long run. After all this is the man that taught Ranma the Neko-Ken in the first place."  
  
Sheila had suspected as much, but over the last few weeks the others had focused more on the training and given out very little information on the subject. She hadn't even been able to figure out who had made Ranma into such a cat like creature complete with the correct movements and instincts. For a normal human like Ranma it must have been quite dangerous, but for a werecat, a being that could talk to other cats and regenerate injuries in moments, things might have gone quite a bit differently. She still planned to hurt this man though, he had hurt her Ranma in unforgivable ways and nearly driven him insane, permanently. She had actually heard of some techniques that were more dangerous than this Neko-Ken, but they were only taught to those who were willing or had the skills to survive.   
  
"Well now that Ranma is cured of the fear and he can control the technique, he can get around to paying the old guy back for all the pain he's caused over the years. I plan on making him feel a little pain for doing that to My Ranma." Sheila realized what she had just said and blushed as she cursed under her breath.  
  
"Your Ranma?" Julia hooted at the blushing girl. "See, I knew you had it bad for him."  
  
Sheila turned shy and looked away. "Please don't tell him, he hasn't even noticed that I'm around or shown any interest in me anyway. I think there might be someone else he's interested in."  
  
"Ranma likes you Sheila, he treats you like a friend and someone he trusts. With most people he tends to get tense or untrustworthy around them to keep them at a distance, with you he lets his guard down a little. I don't think he even realizes what you want from him. You're his friend and that means more to him than a relationship of any kind, and he doesn't have very many of them."  
  
"Everyone has friends Master Julia."  
  
"You don't understand, he does now, me, Theo, the girls, even you, but there was a time that Ranma's father wouldn't let him have any."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Ranma said friends were supposed to be a distraction from the Art and that nothing else mattered, nothing but the Art. That's all his life revolved around for the first 9 or so years of his life, so you see, to be his friend is a special privilege."  
  
Sheila didn't really know what to say to that.  
  
Grabbing her robe, Julia stood up and put it on while Sheila sat there and thought about what she had said. "I have some things to take care of before we leave, so you have a few hours to think about things before we have to leave."  
  
"Thanks Master Julia." Sheila waved absently as the older woman walked out of the bathroom. She sat there for several more minutes before she got up and grabbed her towel and left the bathroom. For some reason Sheila didn't quite understand how she felt about Ranma, one minute she wanted him and the next she wanted to break him into little pieces, from what she understood, this wasn't what love was about. She leaned back in the tub and relaxed a little more, stretching herself out and letting herself float a little. Tirga came to mind and she pictured him in her mind, for once she didn't react to the thought at all and she usually had some kind of reaction when she thought of him.  
  
She'd had a major crush on Tirga for several years now and took a bit of pride riling him for all the times he had chased after some other girl and dumped the girl after getting her in bed once or twice. Tirga was one of the only men she had every been interested in, one of the reasons was that he didn't care about the fact that she had a birth defect that screwed up her werejaguar abilities, most everyone else considered her to be bad news. Instead of being a tall and powerfully built werecat like her brother, with loads of strength, speed, and a quick regeneration ability. Her hybrid form had ended up being human sized and puny, giving her a child like look that she had to offset with sexy clothing that made her look like she was playing dress up all the time. She had been forced to Kapowie more than one guy when she was treated like a child, her ice cream fetish not withstanding, nope.  
  
Her human form on the other hand was almost seven foot high and made her look like a giant Amazon with huge breasts. That form also had all her strength and speed that should have belonged to her hybrid form, because of this she rarely went about in her human form unless she had to. It drew the eyes of everybody that saw it, for some reason a werecat with the same look didn't draw as much attention as she did as a human and it got embarrassing watching guys walk into walls whenever she was in that form for any reason. Even Tirga couldn't look her in the eye for a simple conversation when she was human and having him ogling her breasts was just a bit weird at times. Now that she was thinking about it, she hadn't even had a chance to mention her human form to Ranma, would he even noticed her if she showed it to him?  
  
She perked up a little as she though about it, Ranma was a man and he had to have those feeling in there somewhere, if there was one thing about her human form it was that it was quite striking to any male that saw it. Did she want to even make him think of her like that though? She did like him quite a bit and last night in the garden she would have gone for it in an instant, but he had virtually ignored her as they walked along and that hadn't earned him any good points with her when she was trying to get his attention. Still, Julia said he was somewhat clueless when it came to relationships, but even if he grew up in an isolated way the boy shouldn't have been that bad. She rose out of the large bath and absently grabbed her robe off the side and wrapped it around her, it was kind of small, but it was enough to cover her small body. She stepped out of the bathroom and headed for her room, she'd forgotten to bring a change of clothes with her after Ranma had walked by her in all his muscled glory.   
  
"Sheila! My Love!" Was yelled out the instant she moved out of the bathroom and started heading down the hall to her room, Tirga came out of nowhere and picked her up in a bear hug. Sheila could instantly smell the cheep wine that Tirga was drinking had he tried to lean in and kiss her, other wise he would have known better than to play with her like this. She looked away and pretended no to care what he was doing, even if it was finally making her body respond to him a little. Playing hard to get with him had become a habit and this was just a good reason to get rid of him now that she wasn't as interested as she used to be.  
  
"Put me down Tirga." Sheila said calmly, but Tirga didn't listen and she found she was already getting tired of him. That smell of cheap wine was enough to make her sick and she had to hold her breath just to keep from smelling it, then he leaned foreword again and she had to resist an urge to break him into little pieces.  
  
"I knew you still cared about me." Tirga purred in her ear and started to grope one of her breasts through the robe. "You're kind of small aren't you?"  
  
Vision went read as she lost her temper, she shifted to her human form and broke out of his arms with a burst of strength and dropped to the floor. She turned to glare at him, but stopped when his eyes glazed over and he started drooling like an idiot. Then she realized that her robe wasn't big enough to keep all the special bits covered in this form, in other words her giant tits were on display and less than a foot from the drooling pervert.   
  
"PEEEERVVVERRRTTTTT KAPOWIE!! Sheila screamed and punched him.  
  
As just mentioned, Sheila's strength while in human form is what she would have been given if she didn't have that strange birth defect, so it was with no surprise that her fist hit him with the force of a car running into a brick wall. Tirga exploded backwards with a grunt of pain, flew down the hall, and slammed into a wall with enough force to shatter it around him in a spider web of cracks. He collapsed to the floor with a groan and lay there as Sheila glared at him and contemplated his slow agonizing death.  
  
"Sheila! Are you alrigGHAAAA!!" Ranma yelled as he came running down the hall, he took one look at her and skidded to a halt, froze in shock at seeing her, and passed out as a shower of blood burst out of his nose. He hit the floor almost as hard as Tirga had just seconds before, she ran over to see what was wrong with him and completely forgot that she was currently human and endowed with a bit more padding.   
  
"Ranma, are you alright?!" She asked as she knelt down beside him, his eyes fluttered as they opened and she smiled down at him.  
  
"AGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Ranma screamed, jumped out of her arms and did a flip in mid air, bounced off both walls, landed and ran off faster than she could blink.  
  
"Ranma!?" She called after him.  
  
"Geeze sis, why are running around in the nude?" Gar asked as he seemed to appear beside her, kneeling down and smiling at her.  
  
"Huh?"   
  
Gar reached out and poked one of her over sized breasts.  
  
"AGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! I'M NAKED!!" She screamed and ran for the bathroom.  
  
Gar chuckled as he pulled himself from the wall where she had kicked him in her attempt to get away, he had to struggle not to start laughing out right. He had seen the whole thing, though Ranma's reaction had been a surprise, from her reaction to him it looked like they were going to have to have a little older brother to younger sister talk about her dating a human. He growled and smacked his fist into his palm, oh yes, they would have to have that little chat that had been put off a month before when Ranma had been at Nali's clinic. Sheila had been acting weird over the last few weeks and he was worried that this might have been more than a little crush, it looked like he was right. The last time she had started acting like this she had fixated on Tirga and look what kind of guy that was, she had bad luck when it came to men and this was all the proof he needed that Ranma wasn't right for his sister.  
  
His sister punched him in the head. "GARFIELD!! How could you do that to me?!!" Sheila yelled in his ear, he noticed that she had changed back to her normal self, though her clothing was a bit of a surprise. It took him a second to remember where he had seen the thing, the it him and realized she had raided Britanny's room for a quick change of clothing. That wouldn't have mattered, but Britanny tended to wear skin tight clothing that showed off her exquisite body from all angles. She had a thing for spandex, that made something really tight on Britanny form fitting on Sheila and accentuated her small frame quite nicely. He had never seen her wear something like this bodysuit, it was pure black and reflected the light with every little move she made.  
  
"You were the one kneeling in the hall, naked, with a boy in your arms sis. You tell me?" He said as he leaned in close and smirked at her.  
  
Sheila blushed and cringed away. "So what." She mumbled.  
  
"Well you don't have to worry about that guy now that I'm here, I'll make sure he stay's away from you."  
  
"You will do no such thing."  
  
"Oh really?"  
  
Sheila placed her fist under Gar's chin and snarled. "Don't make me KAPOWIE you like I did Tirga the Pervert here."  
  
"You wouldn't dare." Gar said as he stood tall and folded his arms.  
  
"Oh wouldn't I?" Sheila said sweetly, though her eyes had turned cold and flinty.  
  
Gar considered his sister, she was hard to read at times, but when she was falling in love she was even harder to read than normal and this was beyond him. He shrugged and backed down, for now, there would be other opportunities in the future to get rid of the guy. He already knew that Ranma would be leaving Jade anyway, that meant that in a few hours he would be out of his sister's hair forever and he wouldn't even have to worry anymore. She would mope around for a few weeks, then get back to normal and they could put all this behind them. "Whatever."  
  
"Get out of my way."  
  
"No."   
  
"I don't have time for this, I have to find out if Ranma is alright!" Sheila yelled and ran by Gar before he could do anything. He watched her run down the hall and vanish around a corner before he turned back to think a little more. He took a long look at Tirga from where he was 'resting' nearby, there had to be something that would keep his sister away from Ranma and this was his only option. His friend had come on to her in drunken stupor and declared his love for for her, unfortunately he had been too drunk. Well that meant they would just have to come up with another idea, his sister deserved better than that human and he would make sure she ended up with someone that he approved of.  
  
**********  
  
After several minutes of searching Sheila was about to panic, but she noticed that the door to the Brod's garden area was open. She sighed, if he was in there, her chances of finding him were pretty small even if she would be able to smell him at ten meters in her current form, tracking wasn't exactly her best subject. She was inside the room almost instantly and looking around before she had even decided to go in an look around. After a few seconds she managed to spot some signs of him as he plowed through the bushes in his haste to get away, it seemed Ranma had decided that he wasn't going to use the paths like a normal person would do. Taking a deep breath she started through the trees, keeping the path in sight so that she knew where she was. But, after several minutes of walking she realized that she had lost him again and cursed under her breath.  
  
"RANMA?!!"  
  
"What?" Ranma asked from beside her. She jumped ten feet in shock and had to take several seconds to gasp for air as she calmed down, how in the world had he gotten that close without her noticing?  
  
"W-where did you come from?" She gasped.  
  
"I saw you running around out here and wondered if you were trying to get away from that naked chick too."  
  
Her eye started to twitch. "Naked chick?"  
  
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, she was huge! I thought she was going to pound me for stumbling upon her and her boyfriend making out like that." He shuddered.  
  
"Idiot!" She swatted him across the back of the head.  
  
"Ow! What did you do that for?!"  
  
"I'm a werejaguar Ranma, don't you know what that means?"  
  
"Um...not really, but what does that have to do with that crazy chick?" Ranma asked in confusion.  
  
Sheila sighed. "Ranma, I have other forms I can transform into. There's this form that you know, then there is a full cat form that you've seen already."  
  
"Well yeah? So?"  
  
She willed the transformation and turned human again and found herself looking down on Ranma, he looked like he was in shock. Sheila hoped she didn't look as constricted in her borrowed outfit as she suddenly felt, her proportions had to be stretching the spandex to it's limits. "This is my human form."  
  
"But..."  
  
"I don't like to use this form very much, but it has a lot of uses, one of which is that its really strong."  
  
"Um..."  
  
"You see my Hybrid form should look like this and my human form should be wimpy and small, I have this birth defect that has messed up the transformations and I ended up with this."  
  
"I THOUGH YOU AND TIRGA DIDN'T GET ALONG?!"  
  
Sheila facefaults, hard. "What?!"  
  
"Well you were there with Tirga, nude, I thought you two didn't get along?"  
  
Sheila had to sigh, again, as she stood up and returned to her hybrid form and felt much better about things. He had completely misinterpreted the situation, but all she had to do was explain it to him. "Ranma, Tirga was drunk and he grabbed me from behind as I was coming out of the bathroom. I got so angry at him that I transformed, my robe wasn't enough to cover me anymore, and pounded him. That's when you came around the corner and got a good look at me before I could transform back and cover myself up once more."  
  
He gave her that cute, but confused look again. "Then why did I wake up to find myself in your arms with your breasts pressed against me?"  
  
Now it was her turn to look confused. "Huh?"  
  
"I didn't know you could turn human, so when I woke up I thought I was about to be pounded or something, then I noticed that you were still naked and had something large and soft pressing into my arm..."  
  
Her fist appeared in front of his face and he shut up. "Don't make me Kapowie you for being a pervert like Tirga."  
  
"That's the reason I ran."  
  
"Oh..." Sheila blushed as she pictured the scene in her head.  
  
"Though, since that was you and not some sex craved deviant trying to take advantage of me, you sure were cute in that form." Ranma said with a grin.  
  
KAPOWIE!!  
  
Her fist slammed into his head and sent him flying across the garden path to slam into a tree, he slit do the ground unconscious. "Jerk, insult me in one breath and try to cover it up with a complement in the other. SEX CRAVED DEVIANT my ASS!" Sheila yelled and stomped off in a huff.  
  
Ranma was seeing to many stars to do much of anything after that, so he just lay there quietly.  
  
**********  
  
Ranma stumbled into the main room an hour or so later with a rather large bruise covering the side of his face. He was a bit surprised the girl had been able to put him down as long as that, the longest his old man had ever put him down for was about half an hour or so. After that the old man started using him as a punching bag until he woke up and they could continue the training journey. He shook himself out of his thoughts and noticed that everyone was standing around with their bags packed and getting to leave.  
  
"What happened to you Ranma?" Julia asked as she looked the bruise over.  
  
"Sheila punched me." Ranma said with a shrug. "Where is she, I need to apologize."  
  
"She left with the rest of the Edge Guard about half an hour ago, she didn't look all that happy now that I think about it."   
  
"She left?"   
  
"Yep." Julia said, trying to hide the smirk that was threatening to develop. She had been right about him and Sheila, though it looked like things were a little rocky right now.  
  
"Is there any way to contact her?"  
  
"Sorry, they are taking a long way back to check on some of the recent bandit activity in the area."  
  
"Oh." Ranma said and shrugged. "I guess I'll have to do it another time then."  
  
"Go get packed Ranma, were almost ready to go, we should be leaving in about thrity minutes or so."  
  
"Alright, I'll be back in a few minutes then."  
  
Ranma didn't have very many things to pack, so he took his time and was back in the main room about twenty minutes later, he had his back pack slung over his shoulder. He looked a little depressed, but it was pretty obvious what was bothering him at the moment so they left him alone. He looked around at everybody and noticed that they were all excited to finally go back home again, even that strange girl Charlotte looked particularly happy. Her and Britanny had spent most of the trip together having fun and training with each other, he'd noticed that Britanny definitely had some skills, but she depended way to much on her speed and strength for most of her moves. Those were her strengths though and Master Julia had told him she was going to break the girl of those habits eventually.  
  
Charlotte showed some potential, but she didn't have a proper fighter's spirit and her skills would always be lagging behind everyone else because of that. She was just as strong as Britanny, but tended to be way too defensive when she needed to be offensive and had a nervous nature that made her a bit skittish in a fight. He'd thought of offering to teach her some moves the other day, but decided not to mess up anything Britanny might have shown the girl already. He didn't think he knew her good enough to make that offer anyway and to make her into any kind of a fighter would've been way to costly in the long run, he'd have to break her out of that innocent nature of hers and that wouldn't have worked with Britanny or that other girl Penny. That reminded him of something else too, hadn't they come here with one other person?  
  
"Where's that other guy?" Ranma asked.  
  
Britanny turned to look at him. "Genn? He's here visiting some friends of his from a long time ago, he'll make it back to Earth on his own. He is a Rakasha after all."  
  
"What's a Rakasha?"  
  
She started coughing. "OH YEAH! I forgot you didn't know."  
  
"So?"  
  
"I'll...um...explain it to you later, it's a bit difficult to explain to someone if they don't know certain details."  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Oh, okay."  
  
"No one's explained Genn to him yet?" Julia asked Britanny.  
  
"We keep forgetting to do it and with everything else that's happened it just got put off again and again."  
  
"Hmmm...well that will have to wait for later I guess. Everyone gather your things, it's time to go back to Earth." Julia said to the group.  
  
**********  
  
Kneeling behind some rock that were about twenty paces from the front of a cave, Blair wondered once again what he was doing here. They had kidnapped him and forced him into this situation against his will by threatening to kill him if he didn't do as they told him, then expected him to actually go along with it? This was just like the mines, just more dangerous and deadly than being whipped by one of the guards for being slow and weak. He had been ordered to watch and report on that Ranma Saotome kid that was hanging out with The Julia Brigand Diggers, her family, and several of the Edge guard. What had this led to?   
  
That had nearly gotten him caught by Ranma when he got to close to him, he'd been forced to go change into his fox form and scurry away as silently as he could before he got pounded again. Then to add insult to injury he couldn't just go his own way and tell Rook where to shove it, he had threatened his family if he tried to do that. Rook cared nothing for loyalty, all he wanted was for the job to be done and if a person couldn't do it, they were added to the Undead Army as new recruit. He liked breathing, it made him feel good and healthy and alive, being dead would be a bad thing.  
  
So here he was, dressed in some comfortable dark leather pants, a loose shirt, and a dark leather jacket. He had a weird belt around his waist that had spaces for several attachments, a small sword, a couple of knives, a water bottle, and a small pocket for matches. Even weirder was the fact that the tunnel he was currently kneeling in didn't really exist, it was simply a room that could change itself to match the needs of the people that used it. When Hanza had touched the crystal and grabbed him they had appeared in a place filled with white fog and a stone floor. They had been able to see very little due to the fog, but that hadn't lasted to long, Hanza had done some mysterious movement when he wasn't looking and the fog had started flowing and reshaping itself around them.  
  
By the time it finished they had been standing in front of a large cave entrance that led into the side of a rather large mountain, Hanza had explained that they were going to do a little exploring of this cave and that by the time he finished he would have the stealth techniques down cold. Then she had shown him how to walk differently, how to move his body in ways that didn't attract the eye. It had all seemed to be to simple for him, but who was he to complain about how he was shown something like this? He really should have expected that just showing him how to do the moves wouldn't be enough, no, he actually had to practice them while in this odd place.  
  
"Are you ready to begin?" Hanza had asked as they looked over a small rock outcropping that hid them from the front of the cave.  
  
Blair had looked out and noticed that the front of the cave was covered in bleached white bones and the half eaten bodies of slain animals. "Does this place have a name?"  
  
"Um...The cave of Caerbannorg." Hanza said helpfully, she grinned when he didn't recognize the name.  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yeah, supposedly there is a mystical device somewhere in the cave and you must use your stealth techniques to retrieve it."  
  
Blair narrowed his eyes and looked out over the bone strewen landscape. "Sounds dangerous and those bones seem like a pretty good clue that this place isn't all that good for one's health."  
  
"Of course it isn't, you must use this dangerous place to test your skills."  
  
"Oh..." Blair said and shrugged. "Keep me covered then."  
  
"What, your just going to walk out there with dangerous creature wandering around?" Hanza asked.  
  
"What?" Blair asked and looked back a the cave. The only animal he could see was a harmless little rabbit sprawled out in front of the entrance. "Behind the rabbit?"  
  
"It is the rabbit."  
  
"You're kidding me? That little thing?" Blair said in disbelief.  
  
"That's now ordinary rabbit, it the most foul, cruel, and bad tempered rodent to ever walk the planet!" Hanza snapped, trying in vain to hold in a snicker.  
  
"Yeah right!" Blair snapped.  
  
"That thing has a vicious streak a mile wide, it' knaw on the stone here just to sharpen it's teeth!!"  
  
"Yeah right, what's he going to do, nibble on my big toe?"  
  
"Don't say I didn't warn you, he's got big sharp teeth and can leap about."  
  
"He's a rabbit, of course he hop about and has teeth to eat lettuce and carrots." Blair said and jumped out from the rocks and walked over to the rabbit, kicking bones out of the way as he went. Imagine being scared of a harmless little rabbit, it was to ridiculous for words and he wouldn't have anything to do with hit. "Come here you little fur ball, I need to make a stew."  
  
The rabbit looked up at him, wiggled it's nose for a second and ROARED!!  
  
Blair screamed as it launched forward, grabbed the skin of his neck in it's long sharp teeth, and RIPPED HIS HEAD OFF!!  
  
"ARGHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Blair screamed as he lost contact with the crystal and fell to the floor where he started hyperventilating.  
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!" Hanza yelled as she fell to the floor laughing.  
  
"What in the nine hells was that?!" He yelled.  
  
Still giggling, Hanza tried to explain a bit. "In the Earth Realm they have lots of technology, they are able to use this to make moving pictures like we do with magic. That was a scene from one of their 'movies' as they call them, combined with a bit of magic it makes for a great joke." Hanza fell over laughing again.  
  
"That wasn't a joke, that thing killed me, ripped my whole head off too!!"  
  
Hanza continued to laugh.  
  
Blair just knew the rest of the week was going to be even worse than this, he sighed and wait for his teacher to calm down enough to get the real training to begin. *  
  
**********  
  
With a burst of light Ranma and the others arrived in the clearing they had left from just a few weeks before. Ranma looked around to see that the place had been completely changed from what he remembered, there was now a full sized building where a large pile of stone had once stood and the whole area had been subtly transformed into a park like set up, complete with signs and little pathways. A little ways away he could see the helicopter that had brought them here in the first place, it's pilot relaxing in the shade beneath the thing with his hat pulled down over his eyes. Ranma could just make out the form of a girl underneath the thing with him and that they were making out with each other, he made a note not to look over there until they were done doing anything else.  
  
"I thought we were going to go right back to the house?" Ranma asked.  
  
"We were, but since Gina and Brianna are still around here somewhere, we thought we would pick them up before heading right for the house." Julia pointed out.  
  
"Okay." Ranma said with a shrug, he didn't like this place all that much because it reminded him of his curse. He stretched a little and decided to look around a little before they left, he wanted to see what they had done with this place, at the very edge of his senses he could tell that the guards were still around as well, but they weren't paying any attention to them. He wasn't to sure what they were doing but ti seemed to be distracting them from their job, maybe they had just grown bored of watching this place being built up from nothing.  
  
"We should be back in Atlanta in about two or three hours Ranma." Julia said.  
  
"Alright, are we going to do anything until then..." Ranma started to ask, he was thinking of making his way up to the top of the nearby water fall and getting a better look at the small valley they were in. From there he would have been able to see the far edge of the Amazon village, it had been a few weeks since he last had a chance to see it. Then he stopped and looked around as his danger sense went off, he noticed Julia giving him an odd look.  
  
Then all hell broke loose around them as the ground around Dr. Digger's feet exploded outward and sent everyone stumbling backwards in surprise. This hulking brute dredged his way out of the ground a few seconds later and back handed him before Dr. Diggers before he could do much more than gasp in surprise. He flew back several feet and landed in a heap in the grass before any of them could even react, then it's fist lashed out and took Julia in the face. Her reflexes were impressive, but even with a proper defense ready she had underestimated his power and wasn't able to counter as the thing's fist plowed through her arms and sent her flying back as well. By this time everyone'd had time to react and they all dived out of the way of the monster as it turned to face them with an evil looking smile on it's deformed face.  
  
Charlotte let out a cry as she flexed her wings and took to the air to dodge out of the way of a wild swing, she flipped around and hovered just out of range, unsure what to do in a situation like this. This wasn't a head on attack like she was used to defending against, so she moved out of the way to figure out what she needed to do. That didn't stop Cheetah as she cried out in rage and shot forward in a blur of speed to kick the thing in the stomach. It hit with enough force to kill a normal human, but the thing just grunted as it grabbed her ankle and started laughing as it gave a mighty tug and raised her above it's head, twirling her around like a rag doll. Charlotte dove down to help her friend, but the thing used Cheetah like a bat and slammed the two against each other, their heads collided and knocked Charlotte out of the air before she could do much of anything. She cried out as she slammed into a nearby tree hard enough to break off a sizable chunk, by the time she was back on her feet it was pretty obvious she was much to dazed and confused for more fighting.  
  
While this was happening Ranma was in motion as well, but he had jumped back and into the air to get a better look at the thing before he took it on. He'd lost enough fights lately that he didn't want to make any more mistakes, from up above he could tell that it was around seven foot high and vaguely humanoid, but that was where the resemblance stopped. It had two arms, two legs, hands, and even a head, but it's body was covered in some kind of rough armor that concealed its body. Ranma wasn't sure how to describe the thing, it looked like someone with very little artistic talent had chiseled the thing out of rock and left it half undone. From the looks of the fight so far it was incredibly strong and had some impressive speed as well, that ambush had to have taken way more skill than he would have normally given something of this size.   
  
He was about to land just as it let go of Cheetah's ankle and sent her flying away from the fight with a burst of laughter, then it turned to face Ranma and developed and evil glint in it's inhuman eyes. The instant his foot touched the ground he was in motion again, leaping forward and skidding along the ground for a quick attack. He let out a bit of his aura, using all the control at his disposal to make sure he didn't inadvertently kill himself as it surged though him, and punched the thing in the chest with all he had. It was a punch strong enough to topple a tree, but this thing just stood there as if nothing had happened, Ranma recoiled in pain and backed away careful as it cackled at him in a gravelly voice. That didn't slow Ranma down though, he used this distraction to perform another attack, doing a spin kick to take the thing's head off. Ranma blinked in surprise as his kick was blocked almost negligently with its arm, then cursed to himself for being stupid again as it instantly counter attacked.   
  
Why the hell was it that every time he went into battle lately he was making these idiotic and boneheaded mistakes? Every time he thought he had things down, something like this would happen and he would have to pay for it in lots of pain, he was very tired of it, he needed a win against this thing or he felt he would have to take some drastic steps. Ranma dropped and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being stomped on, with a quick push up he sailed above the thing's head for a third attack. This time he was in a good position and managed to get a hit in with enough force to cause some damage, though even that didn't do any good as it just stood there and took the hit as if it was nothing. Ranma landed and took a second to reevaluate the situation, this thing was like fighting one of Gina's robots and it seemed like it could take almost as much or more damage than those ever could.  
  
He dodged out of the way and rolled again as it started to do something it had only hinted at, performing martial arts moves. With it's body formed like stone Ranma wondered if thing had any kind of weaknesses that he could exploit to pull off a win. By this time he spotted Cheetah as she zipped back to the fight and Ranma took advantage of it by quickly joining her and double teaming it with a quick volley of kicks and punches that pushed the thing back several feet. Ranma jumped and added more Ki to his attack, Cheetah was howling as she went low and they managed to keep it off balance for several seconds, but then it just stopped cold, easily blocked their attacks with it's arms and knees, and slapped them away like irritating flies. Ranma was thrown back nearly five yards before he landed, he was used to pain, but the hit had been a lot harder than he imagined. He wasn't able to gain control his short flight and hit the ground hard, but instinct took over and he managed to recover enough to come to his feet and slide back several more feet before he came to a stop. He noticed that Cheetah was nearby in a crumpled heap and not moving all that much, Julia was kneeling beside her adopted daughter and checking her over for injuries.  
  
She was giving him a look that he had seen his old man use on occasion, saying that this was something he had to take care off and that she wouldn't interfere unless he was completely out of the fight. At first he was a little confused, then realized why she was doing this and nodded a little. She wanted to see what he could do against something like this without help, it was a test that he had to pass. A closer look at Britanny showed that she was going to be fine, but that she was going to be out for a the next few minutes at least. If his Sensei wanted to test him and his abilities against something like this then she would get it, his old man had done things like this all the time and he never failed.  
  
He had a lot of Ki in his body and it could allow him to absorb a lot of damage before he was affected, way more than a normal creature, even one like Cheetah. That thing's blow had been only a fraction of it's true power, he wondered what this things full potential was and what would happen if it actually let loose completely. For some reason it was just standing there and giving him this evil grin as it waited for him to do something. Then he took a closer look at the monster and suddenly realized that it was vaguely familiar, but for the life of him, he couldn't ever recall seeing a monster like this before.  
  
"Who are you?" He snapped.  
  
"Why Ranma, don't you recognize me? After all you made me like this, you should at least be able to know the full extent of what you created." Daishi said in his slightly modulated voice, even his insides were somewhat altered by the change, but nothing like his skin.  
  
It hit Ranma like a bolt of lightning and he almost fell over from shock, even then he let his guard down a little. "Daishi!!"  
  
"It's about time you figured out who I am, I'm going to destroy you and make sure you never have a chance to do so again."  
  
Ranma growled, this was the bastard that had defeated him not once, but twice and nearly killed him the last time they met. This was also the bastard that had cursed him because he hadn't thought he would be cursed, he owed this jerk a good pounding, but he wasn't doing to well so far. He recalled details of both battles and wondered why he hadn't noticed the similarities between this thing and what Daishi had looked like before. This monster fought almost the same as Daishi did, though there was now a total disregard for defenses in his fighting style, it was all offensive now that he could shrug off blows that would kill a normal human. This was the guy that had cursed him and turned his life upside down in an instant, he had been off balance mentally and physically from almost the instant he had come out of that spring and still hadn't completely regained his fighting edge because of it.   
  
He had gown in strength over the last few weeks by leaps and bounds, with the Neko-Ken no longer a real problem he had skills and abilities to call on that this man hadn't even seen yet. There was only one problem he had to deal with, there was something missing from the Neko-Ken that seemed to be missing, but he couldn't put his finger on what it could be. His eyes narrowed and he willed his Ki up several level as he stood there glaring at this monster, this monster that had ruined his life, and he felt his power flow though his body like boiling lava. Fury didn't even begin to describe what he was feeling at that moment, but his wasn't about the loss of control kind, but a well of magma that had to be let loose to restore his confidence and honor.   
  
"Today you die for what you did to me." Daishi said with a smirk.  
  
"I will destroy you." Ranma said, it was almost a whisper.  
  
Taking a special stance he had developed only a few days before, Ranma's aura flared around him in a fiery wave that scorched the earth around his feet and he turned his full furry upon his enemy. The smirk was wiped from Daishi's face as he watched Ranma collecting more and more energy, he could feel it in the ground as the boy stood there, his eyes promising to make him pay in ways he couldn't even imagine. He hadn't expected the boy to improve this much in such a short amount of time, but with his new form he would win this fight and destroy the upstart before things got to out of hand. It would just take a little longer than he had expected, the first order of business was to see just how much he really had improved.  
  
For Ranma, unlike a lot of other battles, this one was one that he had to win no matter the cost. They stood there staring at each other eyes and waiting for one or the other to make the first move, it wasn't like before where they had been fighting under orders or to protect someone who was in danger. This was a fight to see who was the better, stronger, and better than the other and so far Ranma had failed to match up to Daishi's special training and enhancements. Then at some unseen signal one of them blinked and it began, Ranma's aura flared brighter than ever.  
  
They shot forward in a blur and came together with a flurry of punches and kicks that lasted several minutes as they bounced around the small area. Moving at speeds that surprised even Britanny, for she had fought both of them and knew they had never been able to move like this. For every punch that Ranma through, for ever combo and kick, Daishi would either have a counter for it or just be completely invulnerable to it and it was pissing him off. To his surprise, Ranma was also finding himself at a disadvantage against Daishi's new form, he was shocked beyond words as he pulled out nearly every trick he had ever been taught and the stone skinned ninja seemed to shrug off almost everything sent his way. Then he was caught off guard when Daishi pulled an attack out of nowhere that nearly killed him, a punch was thrown and Ranma dodged it easily, but he wasn't counting on hundreds of tiny needle like things flying off Daishi's arm and nearly impaling him.  
  
It was like having in a shot gun blast go off right next to him and Ranma's aura flared out ward, then he vanished from sight before Daishi could do anything to redirect the blast. Only to reappear just to the side of Daishi's attack a split second later to deliver a massive roundhouse punch in the lower portion of his spine. Ranma ignored the burning pain in his left arm where the needles had shredded the skin off the side of his arm and imbedded themselves in his muscles and sent a massive charge of Ki to his leg just as Daishi's attempted to block his second attack.   
  
Ranma started in with a quick set of combos, punching and kicking at Daishi as fast as he could, but on the ending up sweep of the final attack that would have broke the guy's jaw something else happened. The blow was deflected with a quick snap of Daishi's arm, but only a tiny bit at the last second and the sharp sound of shattered stone echoed over the area as Ranma finally managed to shatter some of the rock like armor that Daishi's skin was made out of. This was followed by shocked silence as Daishi looked at his arm and the little chunks of it laying on the ground at his feet. Oh and Ranma jumping back with a cry of pain as his hand exploded in pain as well, he stayed back as he cradled his hand and watched as Daishi looked down at his arm.  
  
Daishi's block had kept him from being hit, but at the cost of his arm and a blow that had been meant to seriously harm him. He stared at his bloodied forearm as blood slowly formed along the cracked edge and dripped on the ground at his feet. Lifting his eyes from the wound he glared at Ranma with some surprise, he'd thought this form was invulnerable to all kinds of attacks, why would such a thing work on him after all, it seemed he wasn't as invulnerable as he thought. His skin wasn't just stone, it magically altered his skin into a stone like substance. That added weight, power, and invulnerability to his body, there was no way such a thing should have worked against him.  
  
"Super Stone Breaker Fist." Ranma taunted with a smirk. "I was wondering if your new form would be vulnerable to it?" Then he super charged his body with the same amount of Ki he had just used, if he did it once, he could do it again. "Not so tough are you, it just takes the right kind of hit and you're finished off like the pathetic thing you are."   
  
Daishi turned to glare at Ranma with undisguised hatred in his eyes as he realized that this form wasn't as invulnerable as he had thought and he could feel the boy increasing his strength as Ranma slowly powered up his whole body. This wouldn't do, he needed to make a quick change in plans if he was going to make this boy learn some humility, he needed to be brought down a few pegs. "Bah, you got a hit in and actually managed to hurt me. You won't get another chance, I'm done playing around at this lower level and it's about time I killed you."  
  
"Yeah right, you're not as strong as you seem to think you are and I still have a few things up my sleeves that you haven't seen yet." Ranma said with a smirk, his hand had stopped hurting as well, it was time to see if his plan would work.  
  
"DIE WORM!!" Daishi screamed as he rose up both arms and brought them down in an attempt to pound Ranma into the ground.  
  
Ranma shifted out of the way with a jerk of his body and kicked him in the ribs, there was a flare of light when his foot connected, followed by an explosion of energy that sent Daishi stumbling backwards. He didn't let up as the rained super powered blows down on the monster, breaking off a chuck here, making a set of cracks there, and laying into the guy. Getting into a rhythm, Ranma used every move in his arsenal to make sure Daishi went down, he wasn't going to lose this fight, he had to win! A powerful uppercut sent Daishi several inches off the ground, Ranma grinned as he felt the jaw shatter around his fist, the giant landed in a heap and lay still at his feet and Ranma felt like crowing in happiness. His opponent's entire body was covered in a set of spider web cracks and Ranma wondered if he was going to fall into pieces.  
  
"Take that you bastard." Ranma gasped out. He looked to the side and saw that everyone had been watching as he fought, but he was to tired to even be embarrassed about it and just stood there gasping for air. He even saw that Gina, Penny, and Ace had wandered over to see the action. Dr. Diggers and Julia were sitting down in front of everyone looking a little worse for wear, but they seemed to be okay other than that so he wasn't worried about them. Every inch of his body hurt, pumping his body up to that level of power hadn't been a very good idea it seemed. He could feel that his Ki reserves were dangerously low, but there was enough left over that he didn't have to worry about it very much, he just needed a little rest and he would be good as new. His left arm was a different story, it hurt like some one had tried to brand it with molten lead and he could see that most of it was covered in blood. His attack had caused it to open the wounds even more than they had been, hopefully he hadn't damaged it to much.  
  
"That was to easy." Ranma spat and started to stagger away from the body.  
  
The instant Ranma's back was turned Daishi rolled over and threw a bit of rock he'd been hiding under his hand. "Idiot!"  
  
"Ranma look out!!" Britanny yelled.  
  
Ranma saw the looks of shock on some of the girl's faces and started to turn back just as the rock hit him in the back of the head. It shattered around him and he collapsed to the ground in agony as he grabbed his head, he could feel the blood in his hair, but even then he managed to look at Daishi as the monster stood up with ease and grinned down at him with a look that sent a chill down his spine. All those little cracks started to fuse back together as he walked forward and kicked him in the stomach. This picked Ranma up and sent him tumbling away with a gasp of pain, he came to a rest on his back, unable to get up no matter how much he tried to.  
  
"Is that the best you can dish out little man, you're strong I'll give you that, but compared to me you're a spineless worm. You gave me your best and it still failed to do more than crack me up a little, how does it feel to know you can't beat me, worm? I owe you a bit of pain a thousand time worse than this for what you did to me. On the other hand, since you made me this way maybe I should thank you instead?" Daishi seemed to think about it a little, then shook his head. "Naw, I'll just kill you and get this over with." Daishi sneered as he walked over to the downed boy.  
  
"Go...s-screw...yourself." Ranma mumbled as the struggled to stand, but wasn't able to get past this hands and knees. That rock had given him a full blown concussion and his Ki reserves were to low to shrug off this kind of damage like it had earlier, he tried to think of a way to defeat the guy in his current state, but his head hurt way to much to think correctly.  
  
He stopped right beside Ranma and raised his foot over his head. "Any last words?"   
  
Ranma took a deep breath and tried to focus, he heard something and took a peek between his legs to see that his friends were running over to help him. The was a bit of a mistake though, it was still daylight out and the bright light of the sun was making his head pound, but he could tell that his friends were to far away to reach him in time. The large flashing lights in front of his eyes didn't' help matters much and he nearly threw up all over himself. "Stop them from interfering, this is between you and me now."  
  
With a blink Daishi turned to see the Diggers running over to them. "Let them witness your end then." He said formally. "It is only right for a warrior of your caliber to die in battle."  
  
A thought finally occurred to Ranma and decided to play it as his last card, if he had used it from the beginning he would have won this already, but his fear had been keeping him from using it. He sighed and started to concentrate the last of his available energy just as Daishi's foot came crashing down on the spot where Ranma had been kneeling, it sank into the soil several inches from Ranma's shoulder. At the same time Daishi screamed in agony and stumbled back several steps with his arms crossed across his stomach, blood could be seen as it burst out of the belly wound that he was desperately trying to hold together.  
  
"You talk to much Daishi..." Ranma mumbled from where he landed a few feet away, his vision was started to funnel and go dark, a portion of his mind calmly wondered if he would wake up again. That had been his last attack, if it failed there was nothing left to do but dodge and hope he survived until he got away.  
  
"Fireball!!" Dr. Digger's yelled from the side and blasted Daishi off his feet, not hard considering the amount of damage Ranma's attack had done to him. Ace, Penny, and Charlotte tackled him and tied him up as fast as they could with some cables they had grabbed from Ace's helicopter. Daishi didn't put up much of a fight, he was in to much pain as he tried to keep his blood from spilling from his belly wound.  
  
Gina knelt down beside Ranma and adjusted her glasses to see the extent of his injuries, his clothing was in tatters, the arm was still bleeding, and the large bruise forming along his chest didn't look like it was a good thing. "This is bad."  
  
"What can we do?" Cheetah said, her head still hurt from that blow Daishi had given her earlier, she looked down at Ranma and wondered if there was any way to help him.  
  
Gina turned to her father from where she had been examining Ranma. "Daddy, please teleport me and Ranma to my lab, I have to get him the Regeneration Tank as soon as possible."  
  
"Alright." Dr. Diggers said and quickly cast the spell, they vanished in a flare of light. He turned to glare at his wife. "Julia I could have saved him a lot of pain and suffering, why didn't you let me take Daishi out with a spell?"  
  
Julia glared right back. "Ranma is a fighter and would rather die in battle than have someone help him out just because things got a little difficult."  
  
"I disagree, he could die because you wouldn't let me interfere."  
  
"I agree with your wife on this one Dr. Diggers, Ranma is a fighter and he would have been extremely angry with you for ruining his fight. I've met several men like him over the years and they like to finish their fights on their own." Ace said, adjusting his hat nervously. "Your interference would have only gained you and enemy Dr. Diggers, Ranma had to do this, this was the same guy that beat him the last time he was here."  
  
"We've had this discussion before, Theo." Julia pointed out.  
  
"Fine. Let's grab the body and get him tossed in jail with the others." Dr. Diggers snapped, he rarely won arguments like this anyway.  
  
"HOLY MOLEY!!" They all turned to see Brianna examining the craggy body of Daishi, she had a weird look on her face as she ran a scanner over it. The little device was giving her a number of readings that didn't look good at all. They all came over and crowded around the bound form. Penny looked at the reading on Brianna's scanner and whistled, that wasn't good at all and it meant they might have to make a decision about him that could cause problems.  
  
"What's the problem?" Julia asked.  
  
"Whatever did this transformation to Daishi has made him into a man of stone, every square inch of his skin is made out of this dense stone like substance. Even weirder is that it isnt' real stone, but something so close that I can barely tell the difference between the two. No wonder he was shrugging off those blows like they were nothing, it must have been like pounding on the side of a large rock with a hammer. Now I'm surprised Ranma did as much damage as he did, Daishi shouldn't be hurt all that much, but this cut in his stomach has me worried." Brianna explained.  
  
"I don't understand, he should have sealed it right back up or something."  
  
Brianna shook her head. "He's healing himself actually, but it's only his skin that's like this. The rest of him is still flesh and blood and Ranma's attack has sliced open his internal organs, he could very well die if we don't do anything for him. Daddy, you might as well teleport us all back to the lab as well, I have some equipment on hand that can keep him from dieing. I'd also like to know how Ranma did this, I've never seen an attack like it before and if it can cut through stone this easily we might be able to make a robot that could pull the same stunt."  
  
"He used the technique he was trying to master while we were gone, Brianna."  
  
"That cat technique that he was trying to cure?"  
  
Julia nodded. "He waited until the very last to use and even then as a last resort because it was so dangerous, look what it did to Daishi with one simple swipe of his hand."  
  
"That's incredible!" Brianna crowed just as her father stepped forward.  
  
"Alright then, everyone gather in a circle around him and we'll be off." Dr. Diggers said.  
  
"I'll bow out of the trip, I have to get my ride back to where I got it from and make a couple of stops as well while I'm in the area and have a bit of free time. " Ace said with a grin. He pulled out a remote and pressed a button, his helicopter started up as he walked over to it, by the time he reached it the thing was warmed up enough for a quick lift off.   
  
"Penny I'll need your help with this, I know you have more skill than me when it comes to surgery and Daishi will need quite a bit of it."  
  
Penny nodded. "I thought that was what you were thinking, Gina has some of my tools at the lab for just such an emergency. I'll help Daishi, but I want to make sure he won't pull something like this again. Getting attacked like this every time we go anywhere is starting to get on my nerves."  
  
"Agreed." Brianna said.  
  
"Gina was telling me earlier that everything has been finished here so let's go, they can take care of themselves." Julia said as she looked around and counted everyone that was left. "It's look's like it's just the four of us then."   
  
"Then were off." With a quick gesture Dr. Diggers released his spell and they all vanished in a flare of light.  
  
A few minutes later Cologne and several other of the Elders entered the area at a run, but they stopped when they came across the battle ground. They would have been here earlier, but placing the Plant this far from the village had been a deliberate action, so they couldn't just visit it on a whim. On a normal day, it took the Elders at least twenty minutes to run or hop from the village, they had been slowed even more when they had to take time to pick up some of the younger fighters. There was no sign that anyone was there anymore, but they did take the time figure out all they needed to know, some kind of great battle had just been fought and they had missed it. Cologne had a pretty good idea who it had involved as well, but since the girls were no longer there she decided to write it off as a random event and move onto other things. If some kind of problem came up because of this she knew where to go in order to get more information, those girls hadn't been very secretive about things and she would put that to good use as well.  
  
"What the hell happened?" Yelled one of the Elders as she examined the large pool of blood that Daishi had created.  
  
"All these tracks indicate that two or three people were fighting a larger foe of some kind, that blood belongs to the loser, apparently the larger attacker." Bi Dal pointed out as she bounced around the area on her staff. Cologne really wished she hadn't allowed that Red Cross group to play "The Princess Bride" movie that time there were here to offer them some medical supplies. It had made some of the girls in the village start acting funny, especially some of the Elders.  
  
'Inconceivable.' She thought with a smirk.  
  
"Whatever happened, it looks like they cleaned up most of their mess and left before we got here, at least there is no body to dispose of. Let's double the guard for the next couple of nights and see if anything else happens. This might have been an isolated event with those girls that were installing the Hydroelectric Plant for us, and since they're obviously gone and all of this seems to point to them I don't think we need to worry about it too much." Cologne said with a sweep of her arm.  
  
"Could this involve that outsider that defeated those Musk warriors the other day as well?" Bi Dal asked.  
  
Cologne thought about it for several seconds before she shook her head. "I don't think so."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"That is the same girl that was running around blowing holes in the landscape last week."  
  
Bi Dal paled. "That's the same one that wanted to install those missile turrets on top of the Electric Plant?"  
  
Cologne laughed. "The same, she was just joking it seemed. Thought her sister told me that they he had to later disassemble the walls she had already installed for something just slightly less dangerous than that."  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"Some kind of Water Cannon, supposedly it would have been able to fire a stream of water hundreds of feet with enough strength to knock people off thier feet."  
  
"What in the hell would we need something like that for?"  
  
"I have no idea really, these outsiders were a little eccentric in their ways though." Cologne said with a laugh.  
  
Bi Dal crossed her arms and glared. "Does this mean that this Plant of yours is going to be just as eccentric as they were?"  
  
"Not at all, Gina said it was designed to be as simple as it could be and still be efficient. All we have to do is keep everything clean and all the bolts tightened. If it does break down she would find out about it and stop by to repair it, she would have left a couple of her robots as well to do the up keep, but they weren't really liked in the village so she didn't want to chance it."  
  
Bi Dal motioned to some of the girls that came with them, they were soon digging up the ground and burring the large blood stain and anything else that might draw in some of the wild animals from around the area, bears, large cats, Musk warriors, things like that. It took about half an hour to go over the area and make sure they had everything cleaned up before they left, though Cologne took a second to see it that strange presence she had sensed earlier was still around. Whatever it had been seemed to be long gone by now, she had her suspicions that it was the thing that had caused all this damage, but without further proof she would have to let it sit for now. Her fighter's eye had also noticed something that Bi Dal seemed to have missed, there had been a master fighter in the area, a very good one and she had no clue who it could be and she knew all the good fighters in the this part of china on a first name basis, she had trained a good number of them as well.  
  
This one, from the tracks seemed to be a male who used an aerial type martial art that didn't seem to use any of her tribe's Wu Shu techniques. She would have to look into it, but if someone this skilled was running around without her knowing about it, things could get out of hand if they ever decided to interfere with her long range plans. That could not be allowed under any circumstances and meant she would have to reevaluate her plans for the moment, a wild card was not something to be ignored. Cologne noticed something at the corner of her eye and moved over to a tree, it was about ten feet up and barely noticeable.   
  
There was a tiny finger sized cut along the side of a tree, if she hadn't been looking for something like this she wouldn't have noticed it at all. She hopped up on her her staff to get a better look at it, reaching out and running her fingers over it was quite amazing. It was a perfectly smooth cut along the side of the tree, about two inches deep and over ten inches long. Her senses reached out and touched it, she could feel the Ki still clinging to the tree as it slowly dissipated into the air around them. She could tell that this was the side effect of a powerful Ki attack of some kind that seemed a bit familiar, there was no doubt about it in her mind though, it could only have come from that boy.  
  
"Most curious."  
  
**********  
  
The main med lab in the underground laboratory was constantly on standby mode, Gina had found that it saved time to have things ready in an instants notice when people were hurt. At normal hospitals this was accomplished much easier with living personnel that worked in shifts twenty four hours a day, unfortunately she couldn't afford something like that and preferred to have a personal touch with things like this anyway. She had access to medical practices that were way beyond Earths current level anyway, most of the time this had helped to save those people from 'out of town' that ended up getting in trouble. Stripe's people had also contributed a bit of knowledge, but since they were not quite human some of it was hard to apply to human terms.  
  
There was a flash of light as Gina and Ranma appeared in the lab, the lights came on instantly and a couple of level B bots came into the room almost instantly. They helped her load Ranma onto one of the scanning beds and within minutes she was running a detailed scan on him, he had three broken ribs and some minor internal bleeding, a punctured lung, and a lacerated left bicep. He also had bruising and minor scratches over a good portion of his body, she typed on the computer and got the regeneration tank ready for use once again and reviewed the old reading she had taken on him several weeks before.   
  
Making sure her bots were about done fixing up some of the smaller wounds that Ranma was suffering from, she set about programming the Nanite Solution to do what she wanted them to do, this was the tricky part, but she had the advantage of using them on Ranma once before. She didn't expect this to take all that long, not like last time when she had that tricky brain damage to repair. This time it was all easily fixable material and figured he would be out of the Tank in about fifteen hours, more than enough time to run some other experiments on him now that she had the time.   
  
She grinned...well...like a geek about to have a little fun.  
  
Once Ranma was ready, with all but his boxer shorts removed and his wounds cleaned, she had the bots pick him up and place him in the frame that would support him for a few minutes while the regeneration tank filled up around him. When that was done and he had a breathing mask over his face she released the frame and let him float listlessly in the greenish liquid that filled the tank. With a few taps on the keyboard a portion of the ceiling pulled away and let a large scanning device come down and cover the entire front portion of the tank. With Ranma safely inside she started it up, took a few minutes to finish programming the Nanites with their orders while waiting for the large scanner to finish warming up completely. At the same time she had the computer release the Nanites into the tank, she watched as they checked in once entering Ranma's body through the pores. The scanner fired up a few seconds later and she called up a full body scan of Ranma while he was floating in the tank and comparing the new readings to the ones. There was an obvious difference that she noticed right off the bat, he was stronger than he was before, his muscles were more defined and noticeable having filled out from all his training. Of course she looked down about mid thigh and drooled a little while she waited for the Nanites to correct his injuries.  
  
Unluckily, as she saw it, he still had his boxers on, but the image was still as good as the last time she saw it and she did like the wet look. Of course, since she had to sit here for the next few hours to monitor everything, at least she had something yummy to look at whenever she got bored. She glanced at the picture on the monitor and sighed, if only he wasn't so damned young, if he was only a little older she would've liked to get to know him in much more interesting ways. But his age kept her from taking that step and she didn't want to screw things up if he already had someone he cared for. So far though, as far as she could tell, he had shown none of the usual tendencies that men seemed to have after they reached puberty.   
  
Booting up a second computer she started to work on one of her side projects, she had to be careful though, if Brianna found about it things would get a little out of hand. The girl liked to mess with any kind of weapon and improve upon it, Gina didn't mind that all that much, but when her lab had to suffer for it she had to put her foot down and this little project had that kind of danger. That was why she was working on the thing sporadically, just a little here, a little there and every thing was fine. Of course she had to be careful when she was messing with her Beta Technology, but that was always the case no matter what the project. Luckily the stuff was simple to work with once one new how to shape everything, after that it was just a mater of engineering and that area she was one of the best.  
  
Then about an hour later she had to stop and check on Ranma and found her computer was flashing something at her, it wasn't an emergency alarm, but one that said she needed to look at something. Calling up the appropriate screens she blinked in surprise, using that extra powered scanner had been a good idea after all. It seemed that Ranma's body was generating more Ki than it should and it was raging through his body unchecked. With his mind unconscious he wasn't focusing on it anymore and his relaxed state wasn't strong enough to hold all that energy back. Normally this wouldn't have mattered, but the high level of energy was causing her Nanites some problems.  
  
"Jinkies! I've never seen anyone react like this before." She muttered to herself.  
  
In this case they were being systematically destroyed, that wouldn't do, she thought about it for several seconds before she called up a program she had developed some years before to deal with their grandfather. Even Brianna didn't know about this one, it was designed to affect a person's aura and since her father and grandfather were Aura Magi it could be worked to suppress their magic abilities while they did what was needed to save their lives if it was needed. She was glad to use it one Ranma, it wouldn't have to be used at full force, just enough to let her Nanites to their jobs and get out of his body. Activating the program and equipment built into the walls she listened for the hum she built into the device, it reported all ready a few seconds later.  
  
Once activated the readings around Ranma seemed to drop by almost sixty percent in a matter of minutes as he lost touch with his most of his Ki. For the next few hours he would be as human as a normal person and just as vulnerable, but he was tough person and she knew he could take the pressure with no problems. Then much to her surprise she started getting some more weird readings, at first things were progressing normally enough, then her Nanites started asking questions. They hadn't done this before, that was why the subject was scanned and placed in the tank in the first place. It seemed that Ranma's Ki had been keeping his body from being damaged to much by forcing the already damaged organs to continue functioning above normal, but with it suppressed by her program, a number of little problems were starting to show up. Sending the Nanites a signal, she told them to correct anything they thought needed it while they had him in this state and could do something about it.  
  
The next few hours were a fascinating study in weird happenings, the Nanites had to alter his bone density, his muscle mass, and a whole host of other strange things they normally didn't have to mess with. She wasn't even sure what had caused it, for some reason it reminded her of some tests results she had read from NASA when they were still doing lots of zero-g testing. There were chemicals missing from his blood that should have been there, so Gina had the Nanites stimulate the appropriate glands to make sure they were still functioning correctly. This took her another four hours to do, but by that time Ranma was responding quite well so she figured she was done. She set the computer to slowly let Ranma's Ki come back, this way it would be back to normal about an hour before he woke up and had to get out to the Tank.  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
* Apologies to Monty Python's Flying Circus ^_^  
  
Ending Notes - A lot of you were expecting a relationship between Ranma and Sheila and I can hear the complaints now. Well I do not beleive in the love at first sight theory and both Ranma and Sheila have problems they have to work out before they can have much of a relationship, Sheila especially. She does have a crush on Tirga, a pretty big one and even though I have been showing him in a really bad light so far he does have some pretty decent traits as well, it's just that his womanizing ways tend to stand out more than his good points. I will be going a little easier on him in future chapters and show a bit more of him and why Sheila likes him, she has to come to terms with this before she can move on to someone else.  
  
The Edge Guard will be showcased in the next chapter to set this in motion to create a weird kind of love triangle between Ranma/Sheila/Tirga, we'll see where this goes from there. That's the plan anyway, but my writing style rarely lets me go in the direction I want it to go and I keep ending up with these long chapters ^_^  
  
Some of you might also think that Ranma should have kicked Daishi's ass all over the place, I did too, but that's now how things turned out. Ranma is dealing with a problem he's never encountered before and it's affecting his fighting ability. That's all for now, e-mail me if you have questions, praise, or complaints and I'll see what I can do to help you out.   
  
C. Rose  
06/11/02 


	7. Chapter 07

Notes - Okay, it has been a very long time since I last updated this story. One has to ask why, well it comes down to a couple of reasons. The biggest one is that I tried to take the story in the wrong direction and got stuck, I just couldn't figure out what to do with it, but a part of me wanted to go on anyway. Then I decided to bite the bullet and removed 25kb worth of work and started over, I was worried I might have done something horrible, but it turned out to be what I needed to do after all. In less than a week I jumped this story from 45kb to 140kb and boy does it feel good to get another long chapter out for this story.   
  
New Web Site: http://shi_hanna.tripod.com/  
  
**********  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 07  
Cory D. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c) 2002  
**********  
  
Ranma came awake with a start and had to spend several seconds determining why he was feeling so strange, then he opened his eyes and realized several things. The first was that he was back in that odd tank thing again and that there was a mask across his mouth to allow him to breath as he floated there. It did nothing for his eyes though and they stung slightly from being in the green liquid of the tank. The second was that the liquid of the tank was warm enough not to trigger the curse, he was thankful for that at least, it gave him a bit of his dignity back. He was still in pain, but not as much as he'd been in when he passed out after the fight. He sighed into his mask and tried not to get depressed, once again he had taken on an opponent that was far stronger than he was and either won or lost. At the moment he wasn't to sure what he had accomplished with that fight.  
  
That ninja reject had certainly improved and with that strange power of his he was all but unstoppable, but it ticked him off to think that after all the training and sacrifices he had made in the name of the art he hadn't been able to defeat the jerk decisively and in the end he had won by using a technique he hated. His Neko-Ken had been screaming to be let loose at the beginning of the fight and he had resisted because his control of the technique was so shaky at the moment. It was much too easy to access now that he had completed the final leg of the training, he was almost afraid of what he might do if it got out of hand when he was using it. That last blow to Daishi's stomach had been right along side the idiots stomach, he could still picture the glow of his Ki Claws as they passed through the stone skin like a knife through butter.   
  
Had the moron even survived his last ditch attack? Ranma hoped so, killing Daishi wasn't something he wanted on his conscious and there was a very good possibility that he had done just that in those final moments. Sighing, Ranma looked at his body and noticed that most of the wounds he'd received in the fight had been fixed, his arm looked like new and all the bruises he had received were gone. The pain was still there, though reduced to a dull ache over most of his body. He also knew that he didn't like to be cooped up like this and looked around to see if it was alright for him to get out of the tank. There was a lid above him and a large machine of some kind surrounding the upper part of the tank.  
  
He sighed, why did Gina have to be so obsessive when it came to technology? Did she really think that hanging around in a tank like this with nothing to do was good for a person? He needed to move around, stretch a little and get all the kinks out of his muscles, not float here and turn into a living vegetable for fun. Yelling proved to be just a useless as well, what sounds the mask didn't muffle completely sounded odd while submerged and clearly didn't travel far. He folded his arms and thought about breaking his way out of the tank. The flimsy stuff in front of him wouldn't last long against a determined attack if what his increased senses were telling him were true and as he ran his hand over the glass merely confirmed it.  
  
Just as he was getting ready to knock on the side of the tank, breaking the glass was a last resort, to get somebody's attention, the large machine slowly lifted up into the ceiling and he could see Gina in the outer room sitting behind a computer console sipping at a cup of coffee. She waved tiredly and touched a button. "Ranma stay there for a few minutes while while I get the everything shut down. Okay?"  
  
Ranma nodded, at least he had something to wait for now, and spent the time using his Ki abilities to scan his body, he'd already done a physical check, now he needed to make sure everything was in order inside himself as well. The fight with the new Daishi had been very intense and nearly killed him in the end, it had taken every last bit of skill and will power he had to overcome the guy. After a few minutes of scanning he hadn't been able to find anything out of place, thought he was feeling a bit odd now that he had pumped up his Ki level a bit. Gina's tank seemed to have altered the way his Ki moved within his body so he relaxed into a meditative trance to relax his mind and body to try and get himself balanced again, both physcially and mentally.   
  
After about ten minutes he heard some slight burbling or girgling sounds reverberating through the tank as a set of vents opened at the bothom of the tank and the liquid drained into the floor. Just like last time this took about five minutes or so before the tank itself lowered into the floor and let him out. The lid had detached from the glass cassing and risen into the ceiling at the same time. Gina came out from behind the console and handed him a towel, he didn't miss the odd look she gave him as he dried off. For some reason he felt uncomfortible in front of her, even if he was still wearing his boxers. This pair were soaked clear though and were getting a bit restricting as he stood there drying off with a much to small towel. The blonde stared at him even more intently, if anything it had gotten worse as he dried off. He waved his hand in front of her eyes, but she didn't even blink as her eyes tracked down his body and examed in gleaming muscles.  
  
"Is something wrong, Gina?" He asked.  
  
Gina drooled.  
  
"Gina?"  
  
Gina started and backed up a little, slapping herself a couple of times to knock the dirty thoughts out of her mind, she blushed bright red. "...heheh...sorry about that, just daydreaming a little." Gina said in a high-pitched nervous voice and had to remind herself that he was only sixteen years old. Another part of her mind reminded her that Ranma was just getting into his prime and that meant he could do things now that older men had problems with, she slapped herself again and started thinking about a cold shower. *  
  
Ranma shrugged and decided that the faster he got out of here the better, whenever girls looked at him like this things always got weird. "That's okay, where are the rest of my clothes?"  
  
"I'm afraid they were trashed in the fight, I had them cut off you, but since we're at the mansion you can just head up to your room and get some more." Gina said as she grabbed a white robe out of a nearby closet and handed it to Ranma. She considered not giving him one and watching him walk to his room as the scene was caught on her lab cameras, but figured that would be going a bit far and he might catch her at it. She grinned, like anything like that had ever stopped her before.  
  
After taking the robe and wrapping it around himself, Ranma started to feel a little weird again, but he didn't think much of it as he manipulated his Ki to fix the problem once more. It was little easier to fix this now that he knew what he was looing for, that meant he could fix it without going into a trance like he'd done in the tank. He must have been injured a lot more than he thought by that guy, after a few seconds of concentration that odd feeling vanished once again and he put it out of his mind. He stretched a little and turned to look at Gina, he ignored the odd look on her face again. "Thanks Gina, that fight took more out of me than I thought."  
  
"No problem Ranma." Gina said with a yawn. "It gave me a chance to reacclimatize myself to this time zone."  
  
"What time is it?"  
  
"We arrived here and got you in the tank some time in the morning, it's late afternoon now."  
  
"Oh great, I wake up from a forced nap and I have to go right back to bed?" Ranma smirked.  
  
"You still have a few hours yet, but I'm crashing, I haven't had any sleep for close to a day and a half now." Gina smirked back as she waved good night and staggered out of the room and headed for her bedroom. She had something else in mind too and it would take a few hours to set up in time for Ranma's morning workout.   
  
"Good night then." Ranma said.   
  
He headed out of the room and made his way back up to the top level of the house and to his own bedroom. There were things he had to think about now that he had survived this, he just couldn't figure out where he was making his mistakes during all his latest fights to bring him to this level. For the last two months he had been training harder than ever and yet every fight he got into had led to his defeat or a near thing. Training under his old man had always had him practicing and fighting at this top form. Ranma knew this was one of the reasons he was so good, but without the old man there to keep him at that level he seemed to have lost his edge somehow, he had to get it back.  
  
Daishi had been able to turn himself into that monster, but Ranma knew he should have been able to take the jerk down with no problems. Instead the guy had nearly killed him because he hadn't been able to dodge fast enough. He wasn't sure, but Gina had mentioned that Daishi was enhanced in someway that made him dangerous, could this mean that the guy's enhancements had been transferred to his new form as well? Ranma didn't know, his thoughts had been so mixed up lately that he sometimes didn't know up from down. Every since going to Jade he had been off balance, even with all that training he just hadn't been able to get past it. A part of his mind blamed this on his inability to grasp the last of the Neko-Ken training for so long, he was divided emotionally and it affected his fighting ability.  
  
He knew that he his abilities had increased to some pretty height levels, way beyond his level from when he first arrived here. Studying that book on Ki had been very informative and it had stressed several times how one could become unbalanced and lose all the advantages of Ki manipulation. The book had been kind of reluctant to give out straight answers, instead saying things like his old man did about jumping with one's heart, comments that took a while to decipher. Julia had told him some of the same things, but she had shown him how to manipulate his will power to accomplish what he wanted and that had given him more insight into the book. Still, Ranma had thought he had most of those techniques mastered and added to his skills before he even went to Jade.  
  
He was causing his own problem because of this, but how in the world was he going to get it fixed? No matter how many times he asked himself the same question the answer still eluded him, there were so many possibilities and factors that he didn't know what to do. His father would tell him to forget about that crap and just train until the answer came to him, but that wasn't working, the last month had been enough to prove that. Being beaten down by Daishi on three different occasions hadn't helped his confidence either, he was completely stumped.  
  
Upon reaching his bedroom Ranma headed in and found an older change of clothing and put them on, these were nothing like that clothing Gina had given him the first time he came out of that tank. Those weighted clothing had been a pain during his training sessions with Master Julia and she had slowly increased the weight of the things as the days went on. Building up his body strength had been fun though, he always liked to train because it made him stronger than before. He stopped and thought about his training over the last few weeks and suddenly knew the answer to his problem, it was so obvious that he almost didn't see it. Since he had a few hours before it was time to go to bed he ran out into the back yard, he had some hard training to do and the sooner he finished it the sooner he would be back in top form.  
  
**********  
  
In another part of the lab Brianna and Penny were examining Daishi's body with all manner of equipment, they had been doing so for some time now and the readings they were getting were familiar. They hadn't been sure, but they had finally managed to get some decent readings on Daishi to prove that he had a Jusenkyo curse. Now they could adapt their equipment to recongnize a curse when it scanned one. A simple cup of warm water had turned him back to normal and allowed them to sew his wounds up and take care of the other injuries he had sustained. Personally Brianna didn't like Daishi, but she didn't want him to die either and that meant they had to keep the big jerk alive.  
  
Ranma had done quite a number on him with that last move, this kind of damage was pretty bad too, but she was thankful that all the cuts were as even and straight as they were. Anything else and Daishi would have been seriously laid up for some time, even Pee Wee wouldn't have been able to do much. Cheetah had once lost her temper and crippled Daishi when she thought the guy was responsible for the disappearance of her husband, fiancée at the time, and snapped his spine in several places before they could think to stop her. Peewee had managed to use his genetic manipulation talents to fix him, but he had always been a lot more causious of Britany. Ranma hadn't done as much damage as that, but this was almost as bad, luckily she had the technology to help out with this and make sure he stayed out of their hair for a while.  
  
She motioned to Penny and the black girl nodded and typed something into the computer on the wall. It opened up into a chamber with a strangely shaped chair, it was set on a small circular piller and configured kind of like a dentists chair. She moved the operating table and wheeled the ninja over. Brianna carefully moved the guy into the little alcove and positioned him on the couch as Penny moved around him and placed several medical sensors on his chest, arms, legs, and head. This took several more minutes as they made sure each and every one of them was giving a correct reading and working, then they stepped out of the small chamber and used the computer to close the door. Once shut the machine started a thirty second countdown before sealing the door and filling the room with a gas that flowed around the room to be breathed in by Daishi as he slept.  
  
"That should do it." Brianna said.  
  
"I hope so, this set up is a bit unexpected for you guys though."  
  
Brianna shrugged as something in the room rose up out of the floor behind the chair and activated, the air in the room seemed to waver like rippling water then everything seemed to freeze, including the gas. "Not really, me and Gina have been developing a number of things like this ever since that psychotic dog tried to kill us and with all the work we've been doing on the Ancient Artificers here on Earth and Jade we have been constantly upgrading our technology. This room is an area that isn't affected by time anymore, it will allow Daishi to heal at an increased rate as we monitor him and make sure his more dangerous tendencies don't bother us again. With a bit of study we might even be able to cure him of his curse and remove all the genetic tampering that Peewee has done to him over the years."  
  
"What will you do if he wakes up and breaks out of there?" Penny asked as they set about picking up their tools and equipment.  
  
"How in the world would he do that?"  
  
"I don't know, but it's a possiblitly that might happen if we let our guar down.  
  
"Well I've got a secret weapon to use on him if I need it."  
  
"Oh?" Penny asked, whenever Brianna started talking about her weapons it was a good sign to be on one's guard. The girl had a strange idea of what constituted a weapon and half the time they were powered by one of her AI programs, the one she used in her Peebos.  
  
Brianna reached into her pocket and held up a control, she tapped a button and Penny had to resist the urge to wince. A few seconds later, when nothing happened she opened her eyes and looked around to see Brianna looking at her with a weird grin on her face. Then she looked up and smiled, Penny sighed and turned to look as well and had to gasp at what was hovering behind her. They were flying Peebos, six of them, painted a bright green and pink and shaped like little TIE Fighters with extended wings and one of the super cute faces that Brianna liked her AI's to use.  
  
"Peebo!!" The six Peebos said at once and started flying around the room in a tight wedge formation out on maneuvers as they kept their formation perfectly. Penny had no doubt that the things had weapons built into them, whether they were guns or explosives was a little hard to tell as she watched. She had heard enough stories about Brianna's love of weapons not to even think that differently. The wedge came low and Penny had to dodge to the side as they tried to buzz her head as Brianna started to laugh.  
  
"What do you think?" Brianna asked in the pleased voice of a mother who was proud of her children.  
  
"How in the world did you get them to fly?"  
  
"I improved the hover technology we have on the cars and adapted it to the these Mark 3 Peebo TIE's.  
  
"What do they do? Explode?"  
  
"They do that as a last resort, I installed a set of mini laser guns on these and a targeting system that allows them to hit anything within twenty yards easily. Three of them have an extra laser while two of them are equipped with a powerful taser, the leader Peebo TIE has a tractor beam that can suspend a human in the air for over an hour."  
  
"That's impressive." Penny said, more than a little impressed with Brianna's handy work.  
  
"Thanks!" Brianna beamed. "Did you ever get those Casters of yours to work?"  
  
"The wha..." Penny started, then remembered one of the projects she had been working on before this Amazon thing had come up. "They're coming along pretty well, but there are still a few bugs in the main systems that are causing me some problems with control and power output."  
  
"Need some help?"  
  
Penny was about to decline when she hit upon an idea. "Yeah, I would like to add this hover ability of your Peebo TIE's to the Casters, that way I could free up my hands for other things."  
  
Brianna shrugged. "Sure, give me some blue prints of what you want and I'll design a device for you. Do you want a belt or wrist control set up?"  
  
"Uh..."  
  
**********  
  
Even before Ranma was to start training to overcome his Neko-Ken induced fear of cats, Dr. Diggers had been worried about the boy. As an Aura Mage Dr. Diggers could read a person's aura and get a pretty good idea on the individual, but Ranma's aura was constantly confounding him, every time he looked the blasted thing was different and it was getting on his nerves. With it he could tell if a person was good or evil, sick or healthy, and if they could use magic or not. Every person had a distinctive aura that tended to stay the same over time, kind of like a unique fingerprint. Dr. Diggers had been taking daily looks at Ranma's aura for weeks, sometimes several times a day, and every time he did it something new would be present to confound him. Some days he was giving off a magical aura that would have made Ranma a very powerful aura mage, or a chaos mage, illusionist, or any number of things like an Element Master. About the only thing that was consistent was the high level range of all the readings, it was all very powerful hints of his power that could get him into any of the magical institutions on Jade if they would just stay the same for longer than one reading.  
  
Now he was standing at the patio door to the back yard of the mansion watching Ranma as he moved through one of his easier Kata, the boy had look of intense concentration as a bright white aura surrounded him. Ranma's aura was currently like pure bright light that was used by healers on Jade, but Dr. Diggers could tell that he wasn't casting any magic with it, just focusing it throughout his body to enhance speed, power, and grace to give himself perfect form and readiness throughout his Kata. He would talk to the boy in the morning to get him ready for the first bit of magic training, but for now he needed to talk to an old friend.  
  
"Julia?"   
  
"What is it honey?" Julia asked as the entered the room and moved to stand by her husband, she watched Ranma with a critical eye and wondered what was bothering him. There was a hesitancy in his movements that wasn't normally there, she figured he must have been thinking of his last fight or something along those lines.  
  
"It's about time I started training Ranma how to gain control of his power."  
  
"He isn't looking forward to this Honey, magic is like cheating to him and even if he does learn from you he might not ever do much with it. He doesn't trust it."  
  
"I know, he's been trying to avoid this ever since I told him."  
  
"Hanza beat him with ease after she cast that haste spell, I think finding a way to defeat her in combat is the only reason he's even considering learning how to use magic."  
  
"Whatever his reasoning, he has to learn this, it's far to dangerous to just let him wander off and accidentally hurt someone because he doesn't like how magic works."  
  
"I know."  
  
"I'm going to start him on the basics tomorrow, but I need to go and visit an old friend to find out the best way to do this."  
  
"Who's that?" Julia asked as she watched Ranma's aura flare outward, he picked up speed and she recognized the Kata as one of the ones detailed in that book she had borrowed from Kahn a few weeks ago. It was one of the core techniques of the Anything Goes style. She almost grinned as she realized that this might be one of the first signs that the book, written by Ranma himself some time in the future, was actually correct. This might even be the first time the move was ever used by Ranma himself in this kind of way, the core techniques were designed to branch off into any number of moves in the style and what allowed him to be so dangerous.  
  
"Master Bugee, he lives on the Eastern Continent and is the historian of the Mage Council."  
  
"You're going to have him look into that legend?"  
  
"Actually he's been looking into it for the last few weeks, Dee'em contacted him after a brief visit to Nali's clinic."  
  
"Wasn't he supposed to have shown up to check out Ranma at some point?"  
  
"He never got around to it."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
Dr. Diggers nodded. "It seems that crew of adventurers got into a big fight sometime after he talked to Nali and he had to go and take care of the problem, he never elaborated."  
  
"When will you be back?"  
  
"Sometime tomorrow."  
  
"I'm going to go and run Ranma through another session before he has to go to bed."  
  
"Well, have fun and don't go to far, he has to be able to think when I get my hands on him tomorrow."  
  
Julia nodded and waved off the thought of esausting Ranma that bad as an impossibility as her husband opened a portal and stepped through to Jade. He tended to go back and forth between this dimension and Jade pretty regularly so she didn't think much of it, he was on the Mage Council after all. She stepped outside, the sun had been down for a couple of hours now, she recalled that Ranma had gotten out of Gina's regeneration tank just hours before and he was already outside practicing.  
  
She frowned, the boy never stopped to relax even when she had told him to do so. He was always training, jumping, moving around and doing something, in all the time he had been staying here Ranma had never once relaxed and enjoyed himself. When he read a book he did it on his head, saying in that position for hours, or when he watched TV with them he did a sitting floor routine of pushups, sit-ups, and other things. Even master Leep hadn't made her do that kind of stuff when she was training, he had other ways of instilling strength and disapline. If she didn't know better she would have thought that he was in a constant state of stress, but he was like the ultimate form of stress relief. All his moving around and training kept him from being bored, she wondered if his father had ever shown Ranma how to have fun for real.   
  
"Ranma?" She called out.  
  
"What's up?" Ranma called out as he continued to practice.  
  
"What are you doing?"   
  
"I don't feel right so I'm trying to determine what the problem is." Ranma said as he slowed down a little and started the Kata over again.  
  
"Can you describe it?" Julia asked as she walked over.  
  
"Sorta, ever since I got out of Gina's lab I've been feeling really odd. Nothing really bad, just odd, like I'm out of balance or something and I've been trying to get my balance back, but the more I work out the more out of place I feel, it's kind of weird."  
  
"I've been watching you for the last couple of minutes and I noticed that you seem to be hesitating a little, as if you weren't sure what to do." Julia pointed out her earlier observation.  
  
Ranma stopped and looked at her, he had a bit of sweat beginning to form on his face. "Hesitation?"  
  
"Yeah, just a tiny bit, but your movements looked like you were trying to force them and it was throwing your timing off."  
  
"I was thinking the same thing a little earlier, but to fix it would mean a lot of work, several weeks of hard training."  
  
"The problem isn't that bad, what exactly were you thinking?"  
  
"You and my old man have totally different teaching styles and I've been trying to adapt to your style, but their so different that the two forms won't mesh like the one's I'm used to."  
  
Julia thought about it for a second and recalled Master Leep mentioning that he had dealt with a similar problem when he was younger and had to get some of his students to 'think' along the right paths to learn from him, otherwise they had just been wasting his time. She'd never really thought about it before or even come across the problem when taking on other students like Sheila's brother Gar. Ranma's style was quite difficult to perform, a freestyle form that was easily adaptable to other styles to give him an advantage to counter any fighter he came across, her's was of a similar style, but it had some very regimented Kata built into the core style that had to be followed perfectly or they would cause grievous injury to the person performing it or even an innocent.   
  
"I see, that is quite a problem Ranma, but it's easily fixed and won't take all that long to cure you."  
  
"What are you talking about, to learn your style I have to adapt to it and that means learning all the little stuff."  
  
"No you don't Ranma, our styles are actually kind of the same, but it's the regimented stuff that's throwing you off because you keep trying too adapt and change it into your core style and those moves just don't work right when you alter them."  
  
"Hmmm...."  
  
"Why don't you take the next few days and practice Ranma, practice those moves until you can do them in your sleep and then adapt them a little at a a time until you master them. This includes the Neko-Ken, by the time the week ends I expect you to have at least have most of them under control and ingrained into your style."  
  
"Alright, that shouldn't be to hard."  
  
Julia shook her head. "Ranma if you didn't have the learning curve of a straight line I'd give odds that a normal fighter wouldn't be able to do that in less than a year."  
  
Ranma chuckled and scratched the back of his head.   
  
"Now let's run through the Kata that you need to practicing with."  
  
**********  
  
"Bot #12?"   
  
"Working."  
  
"Run over to Ranma's room, I have a little mission for you."  
  
"What is the nature of the assignment?"  
  
"I want you to collect something for me." Gina said with a wicked grin.  
  
Bot #12 was one of Gina's fully functioning AI's and he recognized the look on Gina's face, Brianna had reprogrammed him and some of the others to know what it meant and filed away it's reservations about its current assignment. He listened to her orders and realized that they weren't all that strange, so he nodded in agreement and went off to do Gina's bidding. He really hated doing the laundry though...  
  
He made a mental note to his hard drive to have the washers updated, he was also in need of an upgrade on his AI systems.  
  
**********  
  
The observatory was at least a hundred foot tall and sat comfortably at the top of a tall cliff base. Over the generations workers had slowly chipped away at the cliff face create several levels where they had dug out homes and businesses for them to work a living. In this day and age the place had grown so large that the entire inside of the cliff face was hollowed out and turned into rooms with magic being used to brace up those areas that needed a little help while they were braced up properly. It was a city of strange beauty and style that boasted that it could make any weapon in existence so long as they had the materials and the time to do so. It was here that Dr. Diggers appeared, on the second level where there was a dimensional gate constructed so that a magic user could come her without worrying about the spell going arry.   
  
It was actually a small stone dais that rose up above the ground by about a foot, the center of it was polished to a bright shine and had a number of symbols carved into the floor. Around the dais was a simple wooden railing with one entrance facing towards one of the nearby businesses, there were a couple of guards dressed in armor to either side of this entrance, they were here to make sure no unwanted guests showed up and tried to threaten them. It had been an addition that Bugee hadn't thought he would need when he set his tower up, but over time he had been forced to adapt to the mistrust and hatred of those people that thought they could walk over him and his people.   
  
A chime sounded off and the guards perked up and turned to the dias, the early warning system had saved their lives more than once, it gave them a ten second warning before anyone could step through to the dais. The symbols on the floor flashed a bright green as a portal formed and Dr. Digger's stepped through and looked around to see if he was where he wanted to. Since he had left his home in the Earth Realm to come here, he wasn't dressed in his skin tight black mage suit like normally was. The guards held their spears at the ready and were giving him a weird look since he was wearing one of his 'loud' Hawaiian shirts, a pair of shorts, and sunglasses.  
  
"Howdy." He said with a wave.  
  
"Who are you?" One of the guards asked.  
  
"Dr. Theodore Diggers, Arch mage of Aura Magic for the Council, I'm here to see Bugee."  
  
"You don't look like any mage I've ever seen!" Snapped the second guard, Dr. Diggers glanced at him and noticed that he had to be thirty years younger than the other guard. He figured the kid was new to the job, most everyone in the city knew him on sight no matter how he was dressed.  
  
"Idiot!" The older guard snapped and thumped the younger one over the head with his spear.  
  
"Would it help if I put on my working clothes?" Dr. Diggers asked with some amusement.  
  
"Head on up to the observatory Dr. Diggers, you don't have to change if you don't want too."  
  
"Thanks, Seth." He said as his remembered the guards name, they had met a few times before this.  
  
The old man smiled and waved him off while he chewed out the younger guard for not following his lead and saying something like that to an Arch Mage of his level. Bugee didn't like to be bothered unless it was important (or it was cute girl come to say 'hi'), but Dr. Diggers had told the old man that he was on his way so there wouldn't be any problems. He headed to the far side of the rock shelf and made his way up a series of stone steps expertly carved with magic. There were several landings and each of these had a small crystal set into the stone of the banister that ran the whole length, these crystals were in fact intruder suppression magic that any of the guards could activate with a word from anywhere on the cliff face.  
  
They fired out three different levels of punishment, a shock, a stun, and a kill shot that could vaporize any intruder. To Dr. Diggers relief the only ones ever used were the shock and stun settings, they had never had to kill anyone that tried to invade when knocking them out, stealing their equipment, and tossing them naked at the base of the cliff was enough of a deterrent to keep most bandits from trying anything. It was also common knowledge that the Archivist of the Mage Council made his home here and a Mage good enough to be on the Council was to be avoided at all costs if you were a criminal.   
  
Dr. Diggers finally reached the top of the cliff and stood before the front door to the Observatory, this was one of the few places on all of Jade where a person could look up at the stars through Bugee's homemade telescope, it was a mixture of science and magic. The observatory, being a structure of technology, tended to be distrusted by most of the inhabitants of Jade because they just couldn't comprehend how it worked. Dr. Diggers had always been amused at how completely opposite Earth and Jade were. One was devoted to science and the other to magic, Bugee's observatory was a mixture of the two and was seen by many as bridging the gap between magic and science. Bugee's interest in the stars was a bit of an oddity as well, there were very few people on Jade that actually knew what a star really was, to most they were just mysterious twinkling lights that could be seen at night.  
  
To Bugee they were like the first obstacle that had to be crossed before people could begin to master their destiny. He had been watching them for close to three hundred years now, carefully monitoring their changes on a day to day basis and had discovered a number of things that even the Mage Council hadn't wanted to believe when they were told. The biggest one was that there were planets other than Jade floating around their sun, something that a lot of people knew to be possible, but had never been proven before. Bugee had done this with his remarkable use of magic and science, the old man had been studying and tinkering with things like this for a very long time now.   
  
Dr. Diggers, being from Earth had helped a little by bringing the old man books on the observatories from Earth and these had been used to find out information that magic hadn't been able to. The old man was also quite the eccentric, he didn't attend many of the Council meetings unless he was specifically asked to and even then he only showed up and stayed for only as long as it would take to get his business done. He rarely left this observatory these days as he studied his stars and other things that caught his interest, one of these was one of the oldest legends on Jade. The story of Jade's tyrant or ruler, Shi Hanna and his god like power that would one day save the world.  
  
He knocked as he stepped inside, the small room just past the front door was just like he remembered it. There were a couple dozen large book shelves that ran along each wall until the staircase became visible, in one corner was a table covered with even more books. There was a light covering of dust everywhere, so he figured the room hadn't been used in some time or Bugee was just a bad house keeper. Heading up the stairs took him to Bugee's bedroom, it was larger than the one below it and had a ladder attached to the top of the stairs that went directly to the Observatory above. He ignored the bedroom and took the ladder up about twenty feet, until he moved thorugh a small hole in the ceiling.  
  
This emerged into Bugee's domain and one of his most spectacular creations, the giant telescope sat on a dias at the far side of the room, glowing with magic. Dr. Diggers' looked around and spotted Bugee up near the top of the telescope working on something. Bugee was a, to put it mildly, an odd creature even by the standards of Jade. No one quite knew what to think of the guy when they first saw him, he was just over three feet high, had an oval like body with long arms and a head. He didn't have any legs and floated around on a near permanent levitation spell that he had cast upon himself.  
  
"Bugee!!"  
  
The old man turned and smiled at him. "Theodore!! How are you, I wasn't expecting you for another few hours yet."  
  
"I'm right on time Bugee, you just forgot what time it is." Dr. Diggers said and pointed at a nearby clock.  
  
"So it is." Bugee called and floated down to the floor. "What was it you needed again?"  
  
"That information on Shi Hanna."  
  
"Oh yes, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to help you out much."  
  
"Oh? What did you find?"  
  
"Shi Hanna is a legend, a very, very old legend that even my special talents had trouble finding much on."  
  
Dr. Diggers shrugged. "He was supposed to be some kind of Demigod wasn't he, the savior of the world and it's people as I understand it."  
  
"Humph!" Bugee said and folded his arms as they made their way down the ladders and stairs. When they reached the first floor, they set up the table and sat down as Bugee conjured up some tea for them to drink.  
  
"I take it you don't agree?"  
  
"Shi Hanna is much more than that, the legends are all in the First Language you know, and that makes things even harder to figure out."  
  
"The First Language? I thought Ribbon was the first language?"   
  
"One would thinks so, but Ribbon is actually a written language that came about around that time, not the first one though."  
  
"Oh yes, my daughter Gina mentioned something to me and Julia about the origins of Ribbon Language a few months ago. I'll have to ask her what it was..." Dr. Digger's looked a bit confused.  
  
Bugee leaned forward curiously. "You don't remember what it was?"  
  
"No, just that she told me something. It must not have been all that important if I can't remember what it was though."  
  
"You, of all people should know better than that, Diggers." Bugee pointed out with a bit of a smirk.  
  
Dr. Diggers frowns and casts a quick spell upon himself. "Fascinating, if you hadn't pointed it out I would never have noticed that someone had been playing with my memory and I'm trained to detect these things."  
  
"Even today we are haven't reached the level of mastery over magic that the Shadows had available at the time, even their technology was several levels above what is possible on Earth today."  
  
"You think the Shadows did this to me?" Dr. Diggers asked in some surprise. "This is a current development, I'll track this guy down and make sure he doesn't do it again. The Shadows are gone and will never be back and even if they did turn up again we have the Armsmaster and Weaponmasters to fight them, we also have the Shadow Elves and their incredible powers."  
  
Bugee arched one of his large bushy eyebrows. "As you say Diggers, before the Shadows were here, we had the legend of the Shi Hanna and believe it or not, I found several references in the archives that suggested that he held many names during that dark time. There was a name that translated loosely as Slayer of Demons, another was Blossom of Death, then there was Justice in Fire, and a several others along that line of thought. Everyone of them seem to suggest that it was a form of justice that would destroy it's enemies."  
  
"They all point to something dark and sinister don't they?"  
  
"Quite, the legends say this guy was supposed to swoop down on anyone that pissed him off and annihilate them from existence, good or evil didn't seem to matter."  
  
"Hmm...that doesn't seem like Ranma at all, he is innocent to some extreme levels and even though he is a good fighter he strikes me as someone that would only kill as a last resort."  
  
"Then Ranma may not be this being, perhaps he's something else, perhaps a talented fighter with nearly limitless potential? Most of our Armsmaster's fit that description very easily, but this fluctuating aura you mentioned has me worried." Bugee said and sipped from his tea.  
  
"How so?"  
  
"Magic is at times very predictable, it's how you and the rest of us on the counsel are able to achieve as much skill as we have. Are you sure that he isn't doing this on purpose?"  
  
Dr. Diggers frowned a little. "Ranma has no experience with magic and getting him to learn it will be a pain, he doesn't trust the stuff, thinks of it as cheating."  
  
"That's normal for any young fighter, I believe you ran into that the day you met your wife and misjudged the warriors tournament."  
  
Dr. Diggers looked away as he fought off a blush, he had stumbled across Julia fighting this guy in armor. For a second it looked like she was about to be killed and cast a spell to shield her from the blow, this ended up getting her thrown out of the tournament for cheating. She wasn't a happy camper and chased him down to punish him for interfering, using the woods for a quick distraction he'd jumped into a tree and created an illusion of himself. She attacked the illusion in an attempt to pin his mage suit to the tree by the shoulder and disrupted the illusion, then glared up at him hiding in the tree. This wouldn't have been so bad, but she jumped up there, wrapped her legs around his throat and used her weight to throw him to the ground with her landing sitting on his chest and neck. He'd gotten quite a view around her revealing costume, it had certainly been lust at first sight for both of them. Their relationship had developed from there and led to many years of adventuring around Jade.  
  
"I don't think this is the same thing Bugee, there isn't a pattern to Ranma's aura, it just reads as something different every time I try to read it."  
  
"Hmm...this does sound familiar, but the more I learn of this the less it sounds like this Shi Hanna character. Could this multi type aura thing be a byproduct of something instead of the end cause?"  
  
"I considered that, but I couldn't figure out anything that might cause the change in his aura."  
  
"You said Ranma was from the Earth Realm, right?"  
  
Dr. Diggers nodded.  
  
"Could it be the effect caused by him traveling between dimensions? It is a documented effect that we have noticed in the were animal cultures that travel between here and the Retreat. The effect is rare, but we have encountered it before and if you remember they had problems transforming until we learned to help them."  
  
"You don't think this could be the same thing? The effects are totally different and Ranma doesn't have any inherent magic like the were creatures do."  
  
"Of course he does Diggers, he was cursed by Jusenkyo before he even arrived in Jade."  
  
"Oh, of course, and Jusenkyo magic is incredibly unstable and resistant to other kinds of magic now that I think of it."  
  
"Exactly, but this only makes teaching him how to control his magical ability just as important as before."  
  
"Indeed, thanks Bugee, I was looking at this from the wrong point of view."  
  
"Keep an eye on Ranma, there still might be something to what you were saying about the Shi Hanna legend though. Only time will really tell and we won't know for some time."  
  
"Alright."  
  
**********  
  
Getting out of bed the next morning was something new for Ranma, Master Julia had run him ragged the night before, forcing him to go over several different Kata again and again and again. He was stiff and sore, much more than he usually was after a long workout and he had to spend half an hour stretching just to get his body working properly again. Most of his clothing was being washed by Gina's robots so he had to settle for a pair of shorts and a tight t-shirt while working out. He hadn't worn anything like this in several years and it felt kind of strange on him, but he ignored it and got down to work just as the sun was coming up.  
  
His life has always been filed with strange occurrences, so he should have suspected something when he got up and found that his clothes were all in the wash. An hour and a half into his workout Ranma had completely forgotten just what he was wearing, on the other hand, someone else sure hadn't. Set just under the over hang of the roof was a small cloaked Peebo transmitting pictures of Ranma's morning workout to a monitor in Brianna's room. Over the last few weeks she had developed quite a collection of Ranma working out in a normal Gi or his Tangs that the liked to wear.  
  
You see, Brianna had this reputation among the single men in the house, Genn and Séance were quite familiar with her habits. Unfortunately she had been keeping her activities to a minimum with Ranma around the house, Julia had even asked her to keep things down while he was around. So her reaction to Ranma had been to try and ignore him, her current attempt to ignore him was to get used to him and find someone else to 'play' with, but Genn was running around Jade taking care of some mysterious goal. She had tried to turn to Séance, but he wasn't around all that much now that he was almost completed his training with her father.   
  
So she watched Ranma workout in the mornings, tinkered with her Peebo's and drooled a little. Weeks of this had done it's job, she could look at Ranma without much trouble, he was a decoration that was on her monitor in the mornings. That was why she woke up just after sunrise for her morning run with Britanny, got dressed in running shorts and a t-shirt and turned on the monitor to check her e-mail messages and froze in shock. On the screen was a sweat covered Ranma with his shirt off and running through a Kata that showed off just how limber and developed this sixteen year old was, how powerful, and how manly he truly was. The fact that he was glowing with a soft white aura might have worsened the situation, but one will never be to sure what it was actually.  
  
"Oh....My...God..." Brianna said as her eyes glazed over and she started to grin. If Genn had been in the room he would have ran from the house screaming and not returned for several days and gotten an all clear from witnesses. Gina would have turned a pale white and hid in her room until the her sister calmed down or gone on a sudden solo adventure to get out of the house as quickly as possible. Britanny would have locked her husband Stripe in his room and guarded the room with high caliber weapons to make sure Brianna couldn't get in. There was only one thing good about this situation that anyone could say and that was the fact that Ranma didn't have a clue about the storm that Gina had set off.  
  
Brianna smiled and her eyes sparkled as plans cycled through her brain as her pupils  
shrank and expanded, hormones raged, and her fingers traced the outlines of Ranma's muscles on the screen. In the background her Peebo-TIE squadron ducked out a convenient window while the ground based Peebo's on the floor ran for it, they had witnessed this to many times too ignore these signals. They may have been self intelligent bombs, but even they knew that something big was about to go down and that meant using what little self preservation instincts they had. She chucked the running outfit and started digging through her closet until she came across one of Britanny's skin tight one pieces. Stepping over to a mirror, she held it up against her nude body and smirked.  
  
Out in front of the house, Britanny and Stripe gave up waiting for Brianna to show up and decided to go on without her. It had happened before so they didn't think much of it, they ran down the block slowly picking up speed and soon vanished. If they had known that Brianna was having one of her mood swings they would have planned a quick two week vacation and not regretted a minute of it. Instead they were out for a leisurely run that would take them away from Brianna and her plans, they had no clue just how lucky there were, or in this case, how lucky Strype was. In Gina's room she was laying on her bed relaxing as she watched Ranma workout in the tight shorts she'd left him to wear, having Bot #12 wash all of Ranma's clothes had been a great idea. It was a yummy sight and her resolve to stay away from Ranma started to weaken as she watched him 'play', he may have been young, but in the last few weeks he had developed into a major hunk of beef.  
  
"What a package!" Gina squealed and giggled loudly. When she was done throwing a party for herself she looked up as a dozen Peebo's, both ground and air type, raced into her room and slammed the door shut, they all looked scared as they hid under her bed. Gina blinked as she rolled over and hung off the edge of the bed to look underneath it. "What's up with you guys?"  
  
"Brianna's going code red!!" They all yelled and retreated to the far back corner.  
  
"Code Red!!"  
  
"Code Red!!"  
  
"Red!! Oh shit! Who is it this time, she nearly killed the last one!" Gina yelled as her mind raced through the possibilities, then her eyes stopped on Ranma as he was doing a series of aerial kicks and she paled.   
  
"I'M COMING FOR YOU MY STUD MUFFIN!!" Brianna's voice echoed all over the house.  
  
"Brianna DON'T!!" Gina yelled as she ran out of the room.  
  
Julia dragged herself out of bed as her daughters started running through the house, she had been looking forward to sleeping in a bit too, she was still tired from all that practicing with Ranma. Then she heard Gina yell something about a code red and gasped as she remembered what that meant. A couple years back Gina and Britanny had received a curse and attempted to get rid of it by transferring it to a bit of protoplasm or something like that. Instead this had created a clone, a melding of both Gina and Britanny that had all their memories and skills. This clone called herself Grave Digger and spent the rest of the day trying to kill the two.   
  
Eventually her husband had come home and taken care of the situation by casting a Remove Curse spell on Grave Digger and allowing her to revert back to a clone of Gina and Britanny, she had taken the name Brianna Diggers and they had been sisters ever since. Brianna had certain flaws as a clone that were usually under tight control, one of them, the most dangerous of them was that she had twice the sexual appetite of a normal girl and if she didn't take care of that urge once or twice a week she tended to do things like this. Julia didn't even want to think of Brianna's obsession with high level ordinances. Guns just wouldn't do, no she had gone out and created intelligent bombs that helped around the house and transformable weapons that made a simple pistol look like a toy out of a box of cracker jax.  
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!" Brianna cackled as she ran by Julia's bedroom door, this was followed by Gina's foot steps.  
  
"You get back here Brianna!"   
  
"Never, he's mine and you can't stop me!"  
  
"Brianna!"  
  
Experience had given Julia a certain outlook on things and even after two months she had a feeling that Ranma was Brianna's newest obsession. She stood up and glanced out the window to see if Ranma was working out in the back yard, a very surprising sight met her eye and she had to take a second look to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Ranma was pushing himself harder than normal this morning and wearing a pair of shorts that were so tight that his man hood was undeniable. With a shake of her head she decided that Brianna's reaction was understandable, Ranma was very handsome. She figured that Gina had spotted him too and had come across Brianna as she snuck around the house.  
  
Back on Jade Ranma would have been considered a bit weird to be a virgin at his age and with his good looks, so Julia decided that she wouldn't interfere in this. Anyway, if Ranma didn't want to go along with it he would be able to get out of it easily enough with his skills. Ranma needed a wake up call anyway, it would help him mature a bit and help him to achieve some of that man among men crap that he had mentioned at some point. She heard another laugh from down stairs and several explosions as Brianna fought her way out of a trap that Gina had set off to stop her from getting to Ranma. Grabbing up a robe she grinned, this was going to be an interesting day and she didn't want to miss any of it.  
  
BOOM!  
  
"Brianna!!" Gina yelled.  
  
CRASH!  
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!"  
  
"AGHAAAAAAAA!!"  
  
"BRIANNA STAY AWAY FROM THE NEIGHBORS!!"  
  
"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOH!!  
  
"AGHAAAAAAAAAAA!!"  
  
Julia chuckled as she headed for the bathroom, she missed the diving tackle Brianna performed as she jumped off the roof and captured Ranma in the middle of a Kata, dragged him to the ground and hog tied in an eye blink. Gina came running around the corner, but she was already to late. Her last sight was of Ranma tied to a pole by his hands and feet, gagged securely, while Brianna and couple of her Peebo-TIE's held the pole up and carried Ranma back into the house like a captured lion. Gina hoped Ranma survived her sister's attention, few had the stamina to meet her needs, it was one of the things her and Brianna had in common, not that she would admit it out loud. It was about here that Britanny and Strype were seen peaking around the corner of the house, they look scared, but now that Ranma had been taken they felt it was a little safer to come home.   
  
**********  
  
The alarm clock went off and Gina groaned as she tossed the sheets off and rolled out of bed to stand up. She walked across the room to her wall computer and turned off the alarm as she grabbed a short silk robe, some towels, and a change of clothes. There were some things she had to take care of today that she needed to get to, her research had pointed out the position of a potential treasure trove on an island in the south pacific that was once used by some pirates a few hundred years ago. The only problem with it was that some of the information was kind of sketchy, she wanted to check it out to see what she might find. It wasn't as old as some of her other finds, but the treasure would be a great way to pay a couple of their credit card bills, Brit's may shopping trips to the mall for clothing were famous among the specialty stores around town.  
  
She also needed to go on this trip to get certain things off her mind, namely the odd sounds that had been coming out of Brianna's room for the past week. Gina wasn't sure what had happened in there, but when one heard power tools going at three in the morning, it had to be something weird. So as she stepped out of her room, Gina had to stop and gape as she saw a bare assed Ranma stumbling down the hall, he didn't look like he was in the best of shape, but she did get a little peeved when he didn't even seem to see her in the little short robe and all the skin she was showing off. He staggered into his own room and slammed the door, she heard the magnetic lock engage and decided to forgive him this once. Brianna must have ran him ragged for the last few days, but he looked better than Genn had on the few occasions he had escaped from her clutches.  
  
Gina blinked and ran the last few seconds through her head again and grinned as a vision of a 'bare assed' well muscled man swam into her imagination again. Then she spent a few minutes banging her head against the wall for not taking the opportunity to get a look at him from the front, those shorts he'd been wearing a few days before were tight, but not enough to give her a decent look and now he was naked. She wandered back to her room as she lamented her sister's over active libido and wondered if there was any way to...Gina's thoughts screeched to a halt as she stepped back into her room to grab something. A quick dash down the hall, down some stairs, and down another hall and she was in front of her sister's room. The door was open so she stepped inside and looked around.  
  
There were the shreds of clothes everywhere, but Brianna was splayed out on the bed with a sheet barely covering her as she slept. Brianna's room was quite large, it may have been on a level lower than Gina's room was, but the bedroom itself happened to be right under Gina's room. The rest of it a large living room, several large closets, a lab, garage, and several other rooms that were used for various experiments. The huge grin on Brianna's face was enough proof for Gina, like the smell wasn't, she needed to see if Brianna had done what she usually did when she went on one of these little mood changes.   
  
Pulling a small device out of the pocket on her robe she knelt down below the computer desk and opened up a small access panel and installed it where Brianna wouldn't find it for a day or two. She giggled quietly and backed out of the little cubby and came face to face with one of Brianna's Peebo-TIE'S as it floated down from the ceiling and glared at her. She crawled to her feet and looked the thing over, Brianna's skill with these AI devices was growing daily and Gina didn't know what her sister was going to come up with next. "Um...heheh...I'm just here to check on my sister..." Gina said nervously, these things sometimes went off with very little prodding and she didn't have her force field generator on. She noticed a couple of small gun like nodes on the ends of each wing, they were starting to spark menacingly.  
  
"INTRUDER!!" The Peebo-TIE said.  
  
"Oh shit!" Gina hissed and made a run for it, but the TIE swooped down and fired a pair of beams at her, she dodged and dove out the door as the floor exploded behind her. The evil thing flew out the door as she hit the stairs and headed for her room where she had the equipment to stop the thing.   
  
"FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!" The TIE chanted as it fired lasers at Gina.  
  
"AGHAAAAAAAAA!!"  
  
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOOOM!!!  
  
Gina ran down the hall and dove into her room and grabbed one of her new guns off a nearby table and pointed it at the TIE as it flew into the room. With a loud 'POP' a burst of energy flew from the gun andhit the TIE in mid air only to surround it in a sphere of energy. It fired several laser shots that bounced off the inside of the sphere and quickly dissipated, then it's face turned into a frown and glared at Gina who was jumping up and down excitedly. "GOT YOU, I KNEW IT WOULD WORK!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!"  
  
"INTURDER, LEVEL 2 RESTRAINT!!" The TIE said.  
  
Stumbling to a halt Gina turned to look at the TIE as it swung around and emitted a flare of energy that popped the force field her gun had created. "Oh shit..." The lasers fired again, but this time they zeroed in on Gina's chest, she gasped at they hit and gaped as she lifted off the ground and hung there. It was like hovering in space, ever move had an equal and opposite reaction and within seconds Gina found herself hovering upside down and holding her short robe in place with her hands to keep her panties from showing.  
  
"TRACTOR BEAM ACTIVATED, LEVEL ONE RESTRAINT UNTIL FURTHER ORDERS RECIEVED."  
  
"Brianna I'm going to get you for this." Gina muttered.  
  
The TIE was oblivious to her predicament now, it just hovered there making Peebo sounds and smiling to itself. Gina heard something and turned to see Ranma, now in a pair of his loose black pants and shirtless, walk into the room and glare at her and the Peebo-TIE. "Can you keep it down, I haven't slept in a week and I need a little rest."  
  
"Um...sure, could you get Brianna to turn the TIE off."  
  
Ranma turned his blood shot eyes to Gina and sighed as he moved over to the TIE and reached out to touch one of the panels on the left wing of the TIE, the panel glowed and the Tractor Beam shut down. Gina dropped to the floor with a grunt as Ranma staggered out of the room, down to his own, walked in, and slammed the door and locked it again. The TIE floated there for a second before flying out of the room with a confused look on it's face and making its way down to Brianna's room.   
  
"Thanks." Gina snapped as she sat up. That was twice he hadn't taken notice of her state of dress. Was the guy that blind to her good looks or was he just that tired, seven days without sleep was quite a while, but she'd never heard of a guy that wouldn't notice a good looking girl no matter how tired they were. She stood up, adjusted her robe, and moved over to her computer and activated the little device she had installed in Brianna's computer. It would take it a few hours to get the information she wanted, but it would be worth it in the end and she could add it to her growing Ranma collection.   
  
**********  
  
Getting out of bed later that day was chore, but Ranma did it even though he was still incredibly tired and wore out. He didn't think about what Brianna had done to him over the last few days, he did not think about the perverted mind that had installed a zero gravity zone on one's own bed for the increased sexual adventure. No, he thought about how tired he was and how long it would take for him to recover from this little mess and the amount of practice he had missed out on in the last week of activity. Though his father would have patted him on the back and told him to enjoy it while it lasted, he just shuddered and groaned in pain and tried to block the last week out of his mind. There were certain things he didn't want to think about and one of those was his father's ideas on sex and how a man did 'it' whenever he could. The old man's idea of sex education was a night at the local brothel with a twenty dollar whore.   
  
Nope, he wasn't going to think about that or Brianna, he had other things to take care of now that he was free of her clutches and that included a bit of training, a good workout, and lots of food. What he'd been eating for the last week hadn't been all that filling...he slammed his head into a nearby wall to drive the evil thoughts out of his head and headed for the shower. A hot shower was just what he needed and he spent about half an hour relaxing and loosening his muscles before he got out, dried off, and got dressed in his normal black pants and a long sleeved white shirt with leaves spaced here and there for a pattern. It wasn't exactly his normal attire, but he didn't feel like wearing the red and black today.   
  
Checking the clock on the computer he saw that it was almost noon, that would give him a few hours to get caught up and work the rest of the kinks out of his body. He really hadn't expected Brianna to go that far, but he wasn't going to complain about it unless something odd happened because of it. He entered the living room and saw that Britanny was watching TV, she was dressed in what she called her adventuring outfit. A skin tight spandex body suit that showed off her every curve. He didn't say anything at first, just noted it, and started digging up one of Gina's quick meals.  
  
The microwave that girl had designed was able to cook anything in less than thirty seconds, it was fast, hot, and edible enough to keep using it. Grabbing a box of frozen wings from the fridge he emptied it out onto one of the special plates and tossed it in the microwave and pressed the 'cook' button. A few seconds later he was sitting down at the table with a few napkins and began eating everything on his plate. He waved a hand at Britanny and he gave a few of the wings to Brit and made a show of looking her over and raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Why am I dressed like this?"  
  
Ranma nodded and tore into another wing.  
  
"Gina set up another treasure hunting adventure, we were going to leave in a little while to see what we could find and get out of the house for a while."  
  
"Can I come along?"  
  
"After what Brianna did to you? Do you have the energy to go on an adventure this soon?" Britanny asked with a leer.  
  
"Sure, I got a few hours sleep and I need to get out of this house for a while, this seems like a good way to do it."  
  
"I don't know, Brianna did this to Genn a few times and it always took him a few days to recover from it..."   
  
"I'm a bit tired, but this adventure of yours sounds like fun."  
  
"Hmmm...I'll have to ask Gina, but I don't see why you can't go with us, though she might want to limit the number of people."  
  
He shrugged. "If she says no I won't mind, I just need to get out of this house and do something to get my mind focused again. A treasure hunt would do that."  
  
Britanny shrugged and finished off her wings in a couple of bites, bones and all, and stands up. "Let me go ask her."  
  
"Okay." Ranma nods.  
  
Breaking into a slow run Britanny vanishes from the room in the blink of an eye and Ranma feels the wind whipping his clothes and has to grab one of the wings as it tries to live up to it's name and take flight. Britanny is gone for about ten seconds before she returns, this time at a slower pace, appearing in front of the table with a grin. "Gina says you can come so long as you get a good meal and make us up something to eat that we can take along with us and eat for dinner."  
  
"Oh? Well I can do that so long as you don't mind a rice dish."  
  
"Not at all, just make enough for ten people, that way we have enough for our big appetites later and something for tomorrow on the way home. Gina's tired of having to cook all our food when we go on an adventure." Brit said with a wink.  
  
Ranma resisted the urge to flinch and nodded slowly. "No problem, give me half hour, that microwave of Gina's will speed up things considerably."  
  
"Go for it." Brit said with a grin and went back to watching TV, 500 channels and all of them were showing things she'd already seen, twice.   
  
How does a microwave cook rice, medium grain, in less than thirty seconds and make it come out perfect? Ranma didn't have a clue, but it worked and twenty minutes later he had ten bowls of rice made up and a main dish of Lemon Chicken set aside in a larger bowl to take with them. Gina had certain kinds of foods preprogrammed into her kitchen computer to help with cooking and to save time, just hit a button and a few minutes later it popped out piping hot and in perfectly cooked fashion. He was just getting everything packed set out on the table when Gina came into the kitchen, nodded, and pulled out her Light Gate remote and transferred the whole meal into storage.  
  
"Ready to go?"  
  
"Yep, I just need to run to my room and grab my pack and change my shirt, this one is too nice to take on an adventure, we might get in a fight."  
  
"Go ahead, I'll place it with our equipment."  
  
**********  
  
Among Gina's bag of tricks, when she wasn't using Ace to cart her around the world, was the family car. The car was a one of a kind device that Gina had designed from the ground up, every square inch of it. It could go faster than a race car, take more punishment than a tank due to the special materials it was made out of, and actually fly. She didn't use the ability very much, traveling with Ace was usually more fun and he was easy on the eyes, but when he wasn't available the car would do in a pinch. Even Ranma had to gape in awe as the car revved up like a Harley Davidson and a set of VTOL jets along the running boards lifted the car off the ground, the tires flipped sideways and the hub cap shaped fans built into the tires propelled them forward. At the same time the trunk lifted up and fired set of low power rockets that propelled them forward, a set of short stubby wings located just under the floor board swung out and balanced the car in the air.   
  
Gina started humming the theme song to Inspector Gadget and giggling as they shot forward, quickly picking up speed as they left the city limits. Dashboard computers lit up to show an aerial map, radar screen, and the locations of all the high altitude traffic they had to avoid. She tapped a few buttons and started gaining altitude as the rockets propelled them to faster and faster speeds. Ranma had to clutch the armrest of his seat and hope they didn't hit anything at this insane speed. Gina cackled a little.  
  
"Gina you are such a geek!" Brittany said from the passenger seat. "Don't you agree Ranma?"  
  
"Geek? Yeah, but I don't understand why you would say that." Ranma muttered from the back seat.  
  
"She's humming the theme song to Inspector Gadget!" Brit complained.  
  
"What's that? A cop?" Asked a confused Ranma, totally lost and getting worse as both girls turn to give him a weird look.  
  
"How can you not know what Inspector Gadget is?!" Gina yells at him and doesn't pay attention to the clouds in front of them.  
  
Ranma pales as they suddenly fly by a flock of birds and miss them by only a few feet, he tries to point it out, but his voice won't work. "Um.."  
  
"Inspector Gadget was a great cartoon! I grew up on it, I even know the guy the show was based off of, his daughter is a genius like me, lives just down the block and everything!" Gina yells. 'I'm smarter though.' She mumbles under her breath.  
  
"Um...Okay." Ranma says and smiles like he doesn't mean it.  
  
"She's even got that computer book and everything, it's got a slow Ram speed, but she built it herself, she has potential..." Gina mumbles to her self as she turns to see where they are flying and turns the wheel to avoid the mountain Ranma had just noticed, making the car do a ninety degree upward climb that plasters them all into their seats. He notices that Britanny doesn't even look concerned and Ranma begins to think coming along with these crazy girls might have been a bad idea after all. He starts to sweat and quietly buckles his seat belt and pretends to be enjoying himself. Would Brianna have been safer than these two?  
  
"See Ranma, this will be a lot of fun when we get there." Brit says with a feral grin and a flick of her tail.  
  
"O-okay, I'll take your word for it." Ranma mutters, silently wishing for a crash helmet and some armor. Looking out the window helps to pass the time, Gina was still muttering, but he ignored it and looked out the window and praying for time to go by a little faster.  
  
About half an hour later Gina taps some buttons on the dash and the aerial view changes to show a small island on the forward scanner. Ranma had though Ace was a dangerous pilot, Gina made him look like a pilot that did everything by the book and could quote safety regulations. He had to resist the urge to scream as the car suddenly lost altitude and dropped down to sea level and started to skim the waves. Gina tapped a few more buttons as the island got closer and he could see that it was like large piece of rock rising up out of the ocean, it had no beaches that he could see, just rock walls that rose a hundred or so feat in the are. As they circled island Ranma noticed that it was a couple of miles long and about half a mile wide, covered in a thick carpet of trees, vegetation, and more rock hills that dotted the whole island.  
  
"Where in the hell am I going to land? I don't see a clearing anywhere and landing in the water would be problematic." Gina muttered to herself.  
  
"Does this thing still have those lasers built into it?" Brit asked.  
  
"Sure, why?"  
  
"Come up along the outer wall and prime the lasers, then when you cross the edge of the rock mow down some the trees and plants, several blasts from the lasers could turn the trees into kindling and splinters and give us a level place to land."  
  
"I don't know Brit, I didn't want to cause that much damage just to land us, but that just may work."  
  
"How about on top of one of those hills that are sticking out of the trees? Use the laser to level one of them off a little and land the same way you took off." Ranma pointed out.  
  
"Hey, that'll work great and I wouldn't have to kill any trees. Thanks Ranma." Gina said as she zeroed in on one of the more level hills, found she didn't have to use the laser after all, and swung the car around to land. It would be a tight fit, but there would be enough space on either side of the car to move around for a few feet. As she got closer she used the small fans in the tires and a small camera below the car to land with a soft bump that didn't even use the cars shocks. "There we go, now all we have to do is find the treasure and were set for the next few months!" Gina crowed.  
  
Britanny laughed nervously as she got out of the car to look around to see if there were any immediate threats they had to take care of. "So Gina what exactly are we looking for?"  
  
"Let me get some equipment from the Light Gate and get things set up, this shouldn't take to long."  
  
"Go for it." Brit said.  
  
Stepping out of the car Ranma had to resist the urge to kiss the ground, he was sure if he had to ride in that death trap again he was going to die a six hundred mile per hour death as Gina rammed them into the side of a building. He shuddered and shook the fear off, he was man, he could survive a female driver even if she did scare the piss out of him. Looking around the area Ranma could see thick jungle trees, animals like birds, monkeys, and other things all around them. He wandered around the car as Gina pulled out her remote and used the Light Gate to bring out a box set up in three thin metal legs, several lights and a small screen lit up the instant it appeared. She started fiddling with it and humming to herself, Ranma didn't know what do so and wandered over to Brit as she looked over the Jungle around them.  
  
"So now what?" He asked.  
  
"We just wait, Gina fiddles with her gadgets for a while, finds what she wants, then we go wherever they point and fight a monster or three, get the treasure and go home to pay off a credit card."   
  
"Credit card? Won't you have any money left?"   
  
"Not really, we got a bit carried away a couple months back just before we met you and accidentally spent more money than we should have. Dad bailed us out, but insists we pay him back since were adults now, most of the treasure will go to him and mom while the rest is used to pay off the credit card."  
  
"Ah..." Ranma said and looked around, these people were weird, really weird at times and he wondered if it had been a good idea to come along with them. All he had really wanted to do was get away from Brianna and her 'raging itch' as she called it. He shuddered again and decided that these two were a whole lot better than Brianna and those strange devices she had pulled out of her lab, he didn't want to suffer through that kind of thing again.  
  
"This is pretty normal for us, don't worry about, with my speed and Gina's smarts we always come through in the end."  
  
"Oh I'm not worried, I just don't know what you usually do on these things and I want to be prepared."  
  
Britanny shrugged. "Just keep your eyes peeled for hidden traps, dead falls, strange looking walls, and slavering demonic hordes of green bug like creatures and you should be fine."   
  
"Um..." Ranma said and ran out words.  
  
She giggled. "Don't worry about it, the first trip is always a lot more stressful if you worry about it so much. Strype tried to help out once and ended up wrapped in bandages from head to toe and he's got all those magical items to use as well. Just keep your eyes open and follow my lead and everything will be fine."  
  
"JINKIES!!" Gina said, jumped around a few times like a fool and cackled.  
  
"Is that normal?" Ranma asked and pointed at Gina with his thumb.  
  
"Oh yeah, we usually try to find one thing and end up finding something else that's a lot more dangerous. So it's pretty normal." Britanny said as she turned and yelled at her sister. "What did you find sis?"  
  
"I just found out why this island is shaped the way it is and if I'm right we will find something really neat inside the island."  
  
"So where do we go first?"  
  
Picking up the Light Gage remote she put the little machine away and replaced it with some picks and shovels. "About twenty feet down this hill, right at the tree line, there should be a door buried just under the dirt. All we have to do is dig it out and since both of you are here it won't take all that long with your speed and Ranma's enhanced strength." She cackled a little more.  
  
Leaning in close to Ranma's ear Britanny whispered to him. "She only gets like this when she finds something big and really interesting to her, I don't know what it is but things are always a little dangerous when she gets like this. Be really careful."  
  
"Right." Ranma says and grabs a shovel. "Tell me where to start Gina and how far down you want."  
  
"Sure, follow me." She leads them down the hill and points out a spot covered in small bushes. "Right there, it should be about four feet straight ahead. Once you two find the door we need to dig the whole thing out and see if there is a small pad off on the side of the door or a small panel of some kind."  
  
He really didn't feel like digging all day so Ranma concentrated and charged the shovel with his Ki and slammed it into the hard dirt of the hill, the dirt shattered around his shovel as he made it vibrate at height speed to cut through the dirt like a hot knife through butter. Britanny just stood off to the side and shoved all the excess dirt down the hill behind them, she hadn't been looking forward to this either. He speed would have helped to do just about the same thing, but Ranma seemed to be enjoying himself so she didn't interrupt him as they worked. About ten minutes later Ranma's vibrating shovel slammed into something metal and he stopped to make sure he didn't break anything. There was no sign of the door, but now that he knew how deep he could go he speed up and soon had a large section of the metal visible.  
  
"I found the metal, but there's no door and I've already cleared about ten feet of it away. Are you sure this is where the door is supposed to be Gina?"   
  
She nodded. "Yes, I may be off a little bit, but everything pointed to this spot, clear the dirt out to sides a little more and see what you find."  
  
"Alright." Working around the outside of the hill took some time, but about an hour later and covered in sweat, Ranma found a seam in the metal and Gina said he'd finally found the door. Twenty minutes after that Ranma and Brit had the whole door uncovered and a little palm plate on the right side of the door. "There you go Gina, anything else?"  
  
"Nope, that should do it. All I have to do is examine it and figure out how to open the door without breaking anything."  
  
"Well let me know if you need anything else."   
  
Gina nodded and waved him away as she pulled some tools from her belt and started examining the door and lock.  
  
"I suppose we wait again?" Ranma asked Britanny as they leaned against their shovels, she nodded and looked bored.  
  
"Yeah, but keep an eye open, every now and then she opens one of these doors and there's a guardian or something on the other side of the door that attacks us. It usually livens things up, but they are out to kill us so we have to take them down as quickly as possible."  
  
"Ah...okay."  
  
"Well while we've got a few minutes will you answer a question?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Sure."  
  
"What exactly did Brianna do to you for a whole week? I can understand two or three days, but seven days?"  
  
He shuddered again and blushed. "Um..."  
  
"You don't have to say if you don't want to, I'm just curious, it's just that Genn could only last a two or three days before she wore him out."  
  
"She...um...made me use my Ki control to increase my stamina like I would in a fight and...um, taught me how to do certain things." Ranma said as his whole face turned bright red.  
  
"FOR SEVEN DAYS?!!" Brit screamed.  
  
"Well it was...um, more like several hours at a time before I collapsed, then we had to start again..." Ranma said, looking like he might pass out from the super blush he had going. Britanny was sure it reached his feet as he rubbed his toe in the dirt.  
  
"YUMMMY!!" Gina said as she appeared right beside him and rubbed Ranma's rock hard ass.  
  
"Aghaa!!" Ranma yelled and jumped into a nearby tree to escape.  
  
Britanny looked a bit surprised, but nothing out of the ordinary. "Geeze sis, control yourself, he's a hunk and all that, but don't you think he's a bit young for you?"  
  
"Age doesn't mater when you look like he does." Gina said as she drooled, with the words 'several hours' echoing in her head like a mantra.  
  
"Well control your hormones girl, he's skittish enough as it is."  
  
"Brianna had her chance, I must have mine, but it can wait since I have this door to open." Gina mumbled, eyed Ranma as he peaked out at her from behind some leaves and shrugged her shoulders. No wonder Brianna had been forced to kidnap him and drag the poor boy back to her room, he was almost scared of them and with that curse it was a little hard to believe. She would have to make sure there was no cold water around when she had her chance, didn't need any female bodies around that room but hers and she would show Ranma what a real woman could do. She let off a perverted giggle as she worked and Ranma had to resist his urge to go running off into the forest to get away from her.  
  
"Gina, focus on the door, you're scaring Ranma."   
  
"HEY!!" Ranma yelled as he jumped out of the tree.  
  
"Door? Oh that, I got it open a few seconds ago." Gina said and tapped the small plate just to the side of the door. There's a loud 'thunk' sound and the door moves backward and slides into the wall with a hiss of air.   
  
They gag for several seconds on the old stale air before moving away from the door, Gina suggests eating lunch while they wait for the air to circulate through the whole structure. Half an hour later they finish off about half the food Ranma had cooked and moved back over to the door. Now that they weren't gagging on the bad air, they could see that there was a small walk way leading to a series of ropes. Gina moved forward carefully, flashing her flashlight along the walls to let them all see the runes that are carved right into metal of the wall. She reaches out to touch one and it starts to glow a light blue color, suddenly the door they had just opened slides back into position and closes with a loud thunk and his of air.   
  
"Gina!" Brit yells.  
  
"Don't worry about it, I think I can translate this language. These runes are kind of like a computer program, touching them sets off a certain reaction within in the walk way." A quick tap on another rune and door opens again to let in more fresh air. "See?"  
  
"Fine, but where to now?"  
  
"To those ropes, I want to see what those are." Gina says and points over her shoulder with her thumb.  
  
The ropes turned out to be cables and they were hanging down a long empty shaft of some kind. Ranma took his flashlight and shined it down the hole, bit the beam didn't make it all that far down the shaft. "What in the world is this?" He muttered.  
  
"I think it's an elevator." Gina said and tapped a couple more runes on the wall. Sure enough a few seconds later the cables start to move as an elevator is lifted from below. A few seconds later it reaches them, instead of a box like one would expect, it's a floor plate. Gina doesn't hesitate to step on the thing and motion for them to get on as well. "This is where things will get really interesting."  
  
"Seems pretty boring so far." Ranma said.  
  
"This is more than a pirate treasure Ranma, if it's what I think it is this could be the greatest discovery in years." Gina said excitedly and bounced around happily.  
  
"Sis you are such a geek!" Brit muttered as the floor plate started to take them down into the lower levels of whatever this is.  
  
"Do you know where we are going?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Not really, just a general idea, this should take us to a long hallway or an open room of some kind." Gina said and looked around as the plate passed through some kind of hole and entered a large room. "See?"  
  
"Be on guard Ranma, this is where we usually run into trouble of some kind." Britanny said.  
  
"It's to dark to see anything down here aren't there any lights or torches?" Ranma asked just as the plate settled into a small depression in the floor and came to a stop.  
  
They all stepped off the plate and used their flashlights to peer into the darkness around them. Ranma was starting to get a nervous feeling as the hairs on the back of his neck rose up to warn him of something in the darkness, but his other senses weren't picking up anything. Was his imagination playing tricks on him? He took a breath and concentrated on increasing his Ki to see through the darkness around him, but it was so murky that he couldn't pick up anymore details. Gina pulled another device out of the Light Gate and for a second during the flash of energy they could see for some distance in all directions and a gun like device appeared in her hands. Ranma had been looking away from the flash when it happened and he noticed something off in the distance, more than a hundred feet away from them, at the extreme edge of the flash of light, but he couldn't be sure what it was so he kept quiet and continued to look around.  
  
"Let's get some light here." Gina said as she fiddled with an odd gun, pointed it into the air and pulled the trigger. Instead of a long beam of light like Ranma had expected it formed a sphere of glowing energy at the end of the 'gun' that floated up into the air above them. It came to a stop about forty feet up and hovered there like a miniature sun and lit up the area for thousands of feet around them.  
  
"We still can't see the ends of the room!" Ranma said.  
  
"True, but we know where the walls are now." Gina said as she pointed in front of them with a grin. About five hundred feet from their current location was a door, it stood out on the wall because the runes running around the edges of the door were reflecting the light and sparkling brightly. "That door should be our next stop, beyond that is the unknown!"   
  
"This is to easy Gina, I really think something is wrong here." Britanny said suddenly.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I don't know, it's just that something is bothering me and I can't place my finger on it."  
  
"I've got the same feeling Gina, though I thought it was my imagination playing tricks on me." Ranma said, he was still looking off in the direction of the thing he'd seen earlier, even with all the light around them he still couldn't make it out.  
  
"What's wrong Ranma?" Brit asked.  
  
"I thought I saw something over there a little while ago, but whatever it was seems to have vanished when Gina fired that gun of hers."   
  
"Did you see any details?"  
  
"Not really, I could have sworn I saw a foot, but it was only a quick look from that flash and then it was gone."  
  
"What kind of foot?" Gina asked.  
  
"A big one."  
  
Britanny turned to Gina. "What was it about this island that said there was a pirate treasure hidden here?"  
  
"Just some old maps and legends that my AI got off the internet and brought to my attention, everything I had said this was just an old pirate hideout."  
  
"Where would they park the boat?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"The boat, where would they put it? We had to fly over this place a few times before we even found that landing spot up above and you said there was no place to land us in the water."  
  
Now Gina looked confused. "I don't know, I never thought about it."  
  
"There is something different about this place Gina, I can feel it, so can Ranma."  
  
"Alright, I trust your instincts Brit, let's be careful and move on over to that door. This place may be dangerous, but I still want to explore and see if there is any treasure to take with us, monsters or whatever not withstanding." Gina said as she started for the door.  
  
"Come on Ranma, keep your eyes peeled things should start getting interesting from here on out."  
  
"Right."  
  
They made it to the door with no problems, Gina's giant light bulb up above was keeping the huge area illuminated enough for them to get there with no problems. The runes were still sparkling as Gina examined them carefully, she would have considered them familiar, but she couldn't remember ever seeing anything like these before. They were different than the one's in the elevator and entrance way, but familiar all the same. Touching them was out of the question, they were touch sensitive and she figured they had to be touched in a certain order open the door.   
  
"Gina, how long will that ball of light last?" Britanny asked.  
  
"Hmm...about an hour, the gun should have recharged itself by then and we can make another one if we need to." Gina said absently, those runes were just at the tip of her tongue, but she just couldn't place them.  
  
Then she blinked as it came to her. "Jinkies! These are magical runes, I saw some in a book Dad showed me years ago when he was trying to see if I had any magical aptitude."  
  
"Magic Runes?"   
  
"Yeah, now how did that book go?" Gina muttered and started reciting some thing from her memory. "...runes are a very potent magic and probably the strongest of them all, but also the most time consuming and hard to master because each and every rune has to be stroke perfect or it will not work right. Most magics are cast with energy drawn from one's body or the magical field of the planet, runes are literally carved into things and empowered with this magic. Buildings that are build with rune magic cast on the walls are nearly impregnable, bricks can not be broken, and magical items are hard to destroy. Runes can also be created in patters that build upon one another to create incredibly powerful spell structures, they are usually used to create prisons, castles, and other kinds of structures that can not be harmed by other forms of magic...  
  
"Gina is this place a prison?" Britanny asked, remembering that tower they had discovered a couple years back.  
  
"No I don't think so, if it was we would never have found the front door, let along gotten as far as we have, this place is something else."  
  
"Do you know what these symbols mean?"  
  
"No, I flunked my magic classes. They just didn't make much sense, it's the reason I took up science and engineering, Daddy said that some people just weren't meant to use magic."  
  
Britanny snorted and started to laugh. "I remember that outfit you started to wear when he tried to get you to learn magic, that hat, and that pink and yellow robe...HAHAHAHAHAH!"  
  
"I was twelve, give me a break!" Gina yelled and turned bright red.  
  
"HAHAHAH...snort...HAHAHAHA!!"  
  
"Um...girls? What are we going to do about this door? Or those things out there in the darkness?" Ranma asked, just a little put off with the girl's attitude about the danger they were in here.  
  
"Oh don't worry about it Ranma, we'll take care of it when we have to and not a second sooner." Gina said and turned back to the runes and the door.  
  
By this time Britanny was rolling on the floor beating her fists against the ground and laughing like a hyena. "...and then there was that time you...and then....HAHAHAH!"  
  
"Britanny, don't make me POOF you to get you to shut up." Gina threatened as she turned around pointed something in Brit's face, she was holding a strange looking pen that Ranma had never seen before.  
  
Britanny froze in place. "You wouldn't dare?!" She hissed.  
  
"Try me, Miss fur coat."  
  
"That's dirty pool that is." Brit shot back.  
  
"So is what you were talking about." Gina said as she leaned forward.  
  
Both sisters were now nose to nose and looked like they were about to get into a fight, Ranma had no clue what was going on, and his danger sense was starting to warn him of something dangerous in th area. He sighed and looked out into the edge of the light and the darkness beyond, something was out there, he could feel it now. Glancing back at the two girls, he wondered once again if coming along on this trip was such a good idea, did all sisters argue like these two did? He shrugged and went to look at the door and figured it would be a good idea to let the girls fight things out among themselves, they obviously had some issues to take care of.   
  
He didn't recognize any of the runes, but his experience with magic was somewhat limited and he still hadn't had a chance to take those lessons from Dr. Diggers. They might have come in handy in this situation, but he'd always found using brute force was better in some situation, so he took a couple of steps back and started concentrating on a move he hadn't performed in some time. Ranma kicked the door with a thunderous bang that shattered it into dozens of smaller sections. Several of the runes flared and he suddenly felt something attack him, but his Ki warded it off enough to save him. Of course this didn't prevent him from being thrown back a good fifty feet with a scream of shock, he even saw the wide eyed look on both girl's faces as he flew by. Luckily his flight was long enough for him to flip around and land on his feet and slide back several more feet before he stopped, then he ran back to the girls.  
  
"Ranma! Are you alright?" Gina asked as she eyed the shattered door and the smoking runes that had sent Ranma flying.   
  
"You idiot, that could have gotten you killed!" Britanny yelled and considered decking the guy for good measure.  
  
"Yeah I'm fine, that wasn't near as bad as some things I've encountered." Ranma said with a smirk.  
  
"That was incredibly dangerous Ranma, those runes could very well have fired out beams of light to cut you into tiny little pieces, exploded to kill us all, or even set off an alarm or something. There are hundreds of different possibilities!" Gina exclaimed.  
  
"Well we had to get through the door some way and standing around arguing sure wasn't doing it."   
  
Gina and Britanny blushed and looked away from each other just as they decided it was time to get back to the mission at hand, they would have words with each other later though. Twirling her pen, Gina put it back in one of her belt pockets and stepped over to the door to looke inside. It was hallway of some kind that went either left or right into the distance, there weren't any lights in here either, but at least in the small hallway they could use the flashlights to help out. Ranma followed after them and wondered if there was some direction they had to go in, or if they would have to explore all these tunnels one at a time before they could find anything of interest.  
  
"So which way do we go now?" Ranma asked.  
  
"I will use my scientific genius to chose the most opportune choice available through a minimum of stress of course." Gina said with authority and an air of command.  
  
"How is that, sister?" Britanny asked.  
  
Gina flipped a quarter and pointed down the left hand tunnel. "We go left!"  
  
Ranma face faulted.  
  
"GINA!!" Britanny yelled.  
  
"HEHEHHE!"   
  
They spend the next ten minutes walking, but the hall seems to go on an on with no end in sight and eventually Britanny lets off a long sigh of boredom. She whispers something to Ranma and uses her werecheetah speed to run ahead of them, quickly vanishing into the distance with one of the flashlights. Ranma looked a bit surprised, but didn't really say anything as they walked, there were still things about these werecats that he was trying to get a handle on. Their ability to heal he could understand, but their magical abilities were hard to grasp at times. Britanny's ability to run like that was one of them, even with all his Ki training there was no way he could match that ability and she did it with such ease.   
  
Werewolves were known for their strength, the werecheetah for their speed, even wererats were known for their stealth abilities. Sheila had explained them to him while they were at Brod's lookout, but he'd forgotten most of what she said to him. He'd been preoccupied with other matters at the time, like Sheila herself and the rest of the Edge Guard. "Gina, is there anyway we can catch up with her?"  
  
"Not really, she does this all the time. She'll be back in a few minutes, normally she would have been back by now, but it must be quite a distance to the end of this hall."  
  
"Well is there any way we can move faster?"  
  
"Well I have been working on something, but..."  
  
"But?"  
  
"Well they are kind of a cheesy idea I started working with a while back, but I later decided against using them, normally Brit can get me where I want to go in the blink of an eye so they weren't really needed."  
  
Gina pulls out the Light Gate remote again, greatest space saving device she'd ever come across, and tapped in a long code. A quick point ahead of them and a flash of light lit up the hall, when it cleared Ranma saw a couple of snowboards covered with electronic devices sitting on the floor. They were about four foot long and a foot and a half wide with what looked like a small engine at the back end, Gina seemed to have a thing for chrome. Ranma wasn't sure what to make of them, but they looked like they wouldn't do much of anything except sit on the foor and sparkle.  
  
"What in the world are these things?"   
  
Gina blushed. "Um...Anti Gravity Boards, I developed them to give me a bit more speed and maneuverability on our missions, but as I got closer to finishing them I started to thing about how...ridiculous they might look if we were saw by any of the other Explorer Groups and shelved the project just after I finished working on them."  
  
"What does Anti Gravity mean?" Ranma asks, a voice in the back of his mind tries to remind him of something he'd experianced a few days earlier, but he ignores it, that is something he doesn't want to think about.  
  
"How can you...oh never mind, Anti Gravity means that they will float a couple feet above the floor, they are kind of an advanced form of skateboard."  
  
Grinning, Ranma walked forward to get a closer look at the boards. "Let's use them, they sound like a lot of fun and want to try one of these out."  
  
"They're just like a skateboard Ranma, do you know how to use one of those?"  
  
"A little, it's just like balancing on a swinging log while dodging bricks as the old man throws them at me, this should be a lot easier and no dodging." Ranma says with a smirk.  
  
"Is there anything your father hasn't done to you?"   
  
"Got me, his idea of training has always been a bit warped. Have you ever heard that the first thing a martial artist is taught is how to fall?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Pops kicked me off of the roof of the house until I could land right, he did it several times, even when I was unconscious. I was five at the time."  
  
Gina paled. "That monster!"  
  
"Agreed, but the weird thing is that it actually worked. I can fall from three and four story buildings and land on my feet with no damage, all his training is like that, it's inhuman, but for some reason it works. Now, how do I activate this thing?"  
  
"Just step on and wait for the green light at the head of the board light up, it should lift into the air on it's own, then all you have to do is lean in the direction you want."  
  
"Alright, this should be easy." Ranma said with confidence and stepped onto the board, as soon as the green light started to glow the board lifted off the floor. He wobbled a bit, but with years of walking on shaky fences, it was incredibly simple to stay in place on the board and after a few seconds even that wasn't moving.  
  
"Hey Ranma, where'd you get those things?" Britanny asked as she appeared out of nowhere and tapped Ranma on the back.  
  
"AGHAAAAAAAAA!!" Ranma yelled and lost his balance. The board went flying forward and careened off a the walls before settling down on the floor even as he fell off and landed on the floor with a grunt. "Owww..."  
  
"Are you alright Ranma!" Britanny asks and rushes forward to check on him.  
  
With a groan Ranma opens his eyes, it wasn't intentional, but Ranma had the good or bad luck to look up at Britanny. She is known for the skimpy clothing she likes to wear, a pair of tight shorts that show off her perfectly toned ass, her tight shirts that show off tons of cleavage. It's her trademark really, just like Gina likes to wear a revealing outfit, though not as blatantly sexy. So he had the perfect opportunity to see things he had been ignoring for most of the trip, he was a guy after all and staring at a half naked werecheetah who was married was a bad idea. Blood dribbled out of his nose and he fainted.  
  
"Ranma!! What happened?" Britanny asked in a confused tone.  
  
"Sis, he's a guy."  
  
"Well duh, so what?"  
  
"Look what you're wearing and think about it, from his point of view."  
  
Brit blinked. "Ah man, I thought spending the week with Brianna would cure him of that little problem."  
  
"Apparently he has a ways to go yet." Gina said with a glassy eyed grin.  
  
"Well don't do it here, this place is really weird, can you believe this hallway is one big circle?"  
  
"Your kidding, you ran around the whole place and ended up behind us?"  
  
"Yeah, I was surprised when I reached that broken door a ways back."  
  
"How many doors did you see?"  
  
"Other than that broken door there were about three others, I also passed a stairwell about a mile or so ahead of us."  
  
Fiddling with the Light Gate remote again Gina brought some safety pads and started putting them on. "Let's get Ranma woken up and we can go take a look at it, I want to see where that stairwell goes, did it go up or down?"  
  
"It was a metal spiral staircase that went up and down." Britanny said as she toed one of Ranma's shoulders and shook him. "Yo, hormone boy, wake up and get a move on before you bleed to death."  
  
He didn't even budge.  
  
"Here try this." Gina said and handed Brit her canteen.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Pour it on him."  
  
"That'll activate his curse."  
  
"So what, he needs to get used to it anyway."  
  
Britanny shrugged and upended the canteen on Ranma's head, the change happened and Ranma rolled out of the water and glared up at her. "What did you do that for?!"  
  
"You fainted and wouldn't wake back up."  
  
"Blast it, I don't like transforming into a girl!"  
  
"Then you shouldn't have fainted." Britanny said with a huff and handed the canteen back to Gina.  
  
"Where am I going to find any hot water down here?"  
  
"You won't Ranma, just deal with it, you need to get used that form anyway. Mom said so." Gina said, ignoring the little voice in her head that suggest at least ten ways for them to get some hot water.  
  
"AGHAAAAAAA!!" Ranma yelled and banged her head against the wall a few times.  
  
Gina pointed to the left over safety pads. "Put those on Ranma, that way you won't be knocked silly the next time you fall off the board."  
  
"I can just carry you two, it's no problem for me, I'm strong enough." Britanny said.  
  
"Naw, I've been wanting to test these things anyway and this is as good a chance as I'll probably get."  
  
"Phooey." Ranma muttered as she put on the pads.  
  
"Oh don't complain Ranma, this whole adventure is for fun and riding these boards will be more entertaining than you realize. They are a lot more maneuverable than a normal skateboard, I installed an centrifugal force gyro scope into them, this will give us a lot of control. Even the ability to race along the walls and ceiling if we have to, who knows what we will run into up ahead, I even installed a couple of lasers incase of trouble."  
  
"Alright, alright." Ranma muttered as she ran down the hall to retrieve the board, it was sitting on the floor as innocent as could be. She stepped on it and had to adjust her stance to reflect the new center of balance of her female body, but seconds later she was had it moving down the hall.   
  
"That's it Ranma, you'll get the hang of it yet." Gina yelled as she stepped on hers, it lifted up and hovered, waiting for her to give it the command to go forward. "Where was this stairwell of yours sis, can you lead us there?"  
  
"Sure, follow me." Britanny yelled and shot forward in a blur of motion.  
  
Seconds later, with Britanny going slow enough for them to keep up, Gina and Ranma were accelerating down the hallway at about forty miles an hour. Ranma was already experimenting with the board, doing some rollovers and racing down the wall like it was the floor, instinctively adjusting her balance to pull of moves that would have been impossible with a real skateboard. He hadn't had this much fun in months, hell years, and he wanted to enjoy it as much as he could before it ended. Gina just crouched on her board and let it speed forward as she watched her sister, she still wasn't as confident as Ranma with these boards and wondered how long it would take her to learn how to do those kinds of stunts.  
  
"Here it is!" Britanny said as she slowed to a stop by an open part of the wall.  
  
Gina and Ranma slowed to a stop as well and landed the boards, Ranma wasn't quite sure how she did it, but once the thought was there she just automatically did it some how. Stepping off the board they made their way to the stair well and looked down, surprisingly it was just a deep hole with a stair case that led up and down, but it was so deep that they couldn't tell just how far. It was apparent that the stairs weren't connected to the floor, instead they would have to step out over the deep drop off to get on the stairs themselves. Luckily it was only a few inches between the two, though Ranma wasn't sure how far down it went, but the flash light wouldn't reach very far. Britanny looked down as well and considered using her speed to head down just to see if it was save enough for them at the bottom. Even stranger was the fact that there was a three foot difference from the back of the stairs to the far wall, Gina said it served no purpose and wondered what it was for.  
  
"Want me to run down and see if I can find anything?"  
  
"No, so far this has been way to easy. I have a feeling that this is the true beginning of this little adventure." Gina said as she dug around in her pack and pulled out a palm sized computer and a pair of glasses that she slipped over her current ones. There was a long wire connecting the glasses to the palm top computer.  
  
"What's that?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Visual enhancement device, Brianna developed it for her armor, it has lots of uses, right now I'm going to scan the stairs and see if we can find out what's below us."  
  
"Didn't Brianna use that thing when we found the Dragon Pharaoh's invisible tower?"  
  
"Yeah, though she has improved on it since then. She mentioned something about wanting a more personal feel to her targeting system, I've tinkered with this older version of that system and added some improvements to it myself." Gina said as she started typing on the little palm computer. "Hmm?"  
  
"What do you got?" Britanny asked.  
  
"The stairs only go down about a hundred feet."  
  
"That will put us below sea level."  
  
"I know, this island must have quite a bit below the waterline."  
  
Beep! Beep!  
  
"What's this?" Gina mutters as she looks at the walls.  
  
"What's going on?" Ranma asked.  
  
"I don't know, but keep on your toes, who knows what's going on." Britanny said and looked at the walls too. "Gina?"  
  
"Some kind of electromagnetic power source of some kind just activated several hundred feet below us."  
  
"Is it dangerous?"  
  
"I don't know, but it's sending a lot of power through the lines just inside these walls."  
  
"What is it doing?"  
  
"I'm not..." Gina started, but then stopped as something happened.  
  
Panels in the ceiling, barely noticeable with the flashlights flickered and lit up the hallway all around them, even the stairwell, then started moving along the ceiling until the whole hallway was filled with light. A low level hum started to thrum through metal plates of the floor, giving the whole area an eerie kind of feel to it as they stood there. Ranma looked around as the lights formed some kind of chain and flowed down some panels set into the walls, the panels were about six inches wide and twelve long, they would light up and die as the one below it turned on and turned dark. It was kind of like train Christmas lights moving from the ceiling to the floor, bathing everything in light as they moved.  
  
"Whao!" Ranma said and backed up a few steps.  
  
"What did you do Gina?!" Britanny asked.  
  
"Nothing, we must have tripped some kind of proximity device and something below started providing power to the whole place."  
  
"Well at least we can see what were doing now." Ranma said.  
  
"Maybe, but with the power on does that mean that there will be some kind of defense grid as well?" Britanny asked, she had been in this position to many times too count.  
  
"Probably."  
  
That was when they heard a sound and looked up at the ceiling, a panel beside the light panel had opened up and a something was lowering down. To Ranma it looked like a hinged bar of some kind with something on the end of it, a silver ball with little red pieces of glass spaced all around it. Then they heard a voice, but it was talking in a language that even Gina didn't understand.   
  
[IDENTIFY YOURSELVES OR BE EXTERIMINATED.]  
  
"Huh?" Gina asked.  
  
[IDENTIFY YOURSELVES OR BE EXTERIMINATED.]  
  
"I can't understand what you're saying." Gina said.  
  
"Ranma watch that ball thing, it probably a weapon of some kind." Britanny said and motioned to the bar that had come out of the ceiling.  
  
"I figured it was dangerous."   
  
[FINAL CHANCE, IDENTIFY YOURSELVES OR BE EXTERIMINATED. ARGHH!]  
  
"I have no clue what it's saying." Gina muttered and turned back to the stairs.  
  
[EXTERIMINATE! EXTERIMINATE! EXTERIMINATE!]  
  
"I was right, run!" Britanny yelled.  
  
The ball lit up and sent beams of energy firing in all directions at once, several of them slammed into Ranma and sent him flying backwards before he could make it very far, over the stairway, and plummeting into the depths behind the stairs. Britanny saw it all happen, but wasn't able to dodge fast enough to catch Ranma and protect herself at the same time, she hoped he was alright, but had other things to worry about at the moment. The only one that wasnt affected was Gina and that was because her emergency force field bubble had activated to protect her. The lasers bounced off the sphere of energy and slammed into the walls to dig out several long holes.  
  
"Whoa!" Gina yelled and ducked down inside the force field.  
  
Britanny reached out to grab the bar and snapped it in two, tossing the broken piece down the hall in a shower of sparks. "Gina, Ranma just got blasted, he was knocked down the this hole before I could even move to grab him. We have to see if he survived." She said and used her speed to run down the stairs before Gina could even say anything.  
  
"Jinkies."   
  
**********  
  
Pain flared through Ranma's body as she realized she was airborne, his instincts took a few precious seconds to react, but she knew what she had to do. Gritting his teeth to block the pain she did a mid air flip and kicked the wall lightly, this bounced her to the stairs where she did the same thing and bounced back to the wall. In this way she was able to slow his rate of decent and chance to get his bearings back, a quick look down showed that she was nearing the bottom of the shaft and she focused on landing without an injury. Luckily by this time she was controlling his fall with simple back and forth jumps that his old man had drilled into her for months on end, with a simple hop she landed and took a second to look around.   
  
Right in front of her was a large bay of some kind, with the lights on she was able to see that this one wasn't as long as the one above, but still quite big. What in the world did these people need with all this pace, there didn't seem to be anything in these giant rooms, they seemed to be useless. She walked forward and looked around to the sides of the doorway, she gasped and jumped back as the wall was ripped to shreds by a metal claw!  
  
"Crap!"  
  
[EXTERIMINATE INTURDER!!] The thing's metallic like voice said.  
  
"I may not be able to understand you, but I think I get the drift you slow poke piece of junk!" Ranma yelled.  
  
[ARGHHH!!]  
  
She was trapped in this small cubbyhole, getting out of it meant going through this strange monster. A white aura of power formed around Ranma as she tried to max out all his abilities, his speed, strength, reflexes, his senses, everything. It didn't hesitate to attack, but Ranma dodged the swipe, jumped on it's head and leaped out of the hole before the thing had time to even turn around. She groaned as she spotted several more of the things running in his direction, they were shaped like giant silver dogs, running on all fours, a long rat like tail, and glowing eyes. Gasping she flipped into the air as one of them fired more of those lasers at her, then the others started firing and Ranma had to dodge with every bit of skill she possessed. They were getting closer and closer to hitting her with every dodge she did.  
  
Then she realized that they weren't like real animals, they were adapting to his speed and reflexes at an alarming rate. She pushed herself to even greater heights and launched herself forward, these things had to be defeated if was going to survive. Dodging wasn't working, but hopefully she would be able to take them out with a couple of Ki charged attacks. She evaded more laser shots and decided to try a plan that popped into his head, running right at the robotic thing she timed the laser fire heading in his direction as best she could and dodged at the last possible moment. She went airborne, flipping over the thing below her as the laser fire from the one behind her slammed into it and blew its head off.  
  
"YEAHAAAAAAA!"   
  
Ranma landed right beside the one she had first encountered and punched it in the head with everything she had, the head didn't break, but she dented it and the recoil lifted it off the floor so that it crashed down to the floor nearby. Then there were lasers firing at her from the ceiling and she had to scramble to keep from being hit, but the robots, who didn't seem to be affected by the lasers anymore, just kept trying to kill her. So now she was being fired on from above and from below, luckily that was when Britanny showed up at the bottom of the stairs. Ranma didn't see sheer, she was to busy dodging and pulling off techniques that few humans could ever do. In mid air, while flipping she used his Ki to form a temporary shield the blocked some of the laser fire.   
  
Dodging lasers at high speed, Britanny ran forward and grabbed one of the robots by the tail and yanked. Lifting it off the ground she twirled it above her head and used it like a shield for a few seconds before throwing it into the other robot, they exploded in a giant fireball. Ranma, still using his Ki shield landed on Britanny's back, grabbed hold and launched them back to the stairs. Ranma wasn't sure if it was safe here, but they hadn't been attacked here so she had to take the chance. "Are you alright Britanny?"  
  
"Yeah, this place is insane, where are they all coming from?" Britanny asked as she gasped for air, Ranma did her best to ignore the were cheetah's heaving chest, even in girl form Ranma couldn't help but take notice of anything like that. With her aura still flaring around her, Ranma was putting off some strange light patterns that Britanny had never seen before, she could even feel the heat radiating from him. Ranma seemed oblivious to the fact that her feet were scorching foot steps into the deck plating, she was preoccupied with all the laser fire still filling the bay in front of them.   
  
"Hey, are you two alright?" They looked up to see Gina on her hover board as it slowly drifted down from above, she gave Ranma a critical eye as she noticed the amount of energy she was putting out.  
  
"We're fine, bit I don't know if we can go back out there. Those lasers are adapting to my moves and learning how to anticipate me."  
  
"It's a miracle you survived at all Ranma, there is a giant computer on this island and it doesn't want us to get any further."  
  
"What are we going to do now?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Well the first thing you are going to do is power down, I'm starting to sweat standing this close to you, now normally that would be a good thing, but in this instance we have other things to worry about." Gina said with a wink.  
  
Ranma blushed and let his aura disappear, but kept his current level of Ki, he had a feeling he was going to need it. "Okay."  
  
"Gina how are we going to get past that mess out there, more of those robots will be showing up any minute now." Britanny asked.  
  
"I have to find a computer access terminal, there has to be one down here somewhere."  
  
"Where in the world are we going to find that?"  
  
"The most logical answer would be on the other side of this bay, those lasers still haven't stopped firing, I think it wants us to stay on this side."  
  
"What about those robot dogs?" Ranma asked.  
  
"This is one of those times where some of Bri's peebo's would come in mighty handy."   
  
"No kidding, send out a dozen or so and let them blow up anything that gets in our way." Britanny said.  
  
"Well, I was hoping to avoid this, but we have two choices here. We can go home and forget about this place, or we can forge on and blow everything to hell and back, we do have access to a good bit of Brianna's weapons." Gina pointed out.  
  
"You have her codes?"  
  
Gina grinned and adjusted her fedora. "Yup."  
  
"You ever train with a gun Ranma?" Britanny turned and asked Ranma.  
  
"Sort of, pops took me by one of the old Japanese Armed forces bunkers and showed me around, pointing out cannons and other things that have been sitting around for years. One of the things we came across was a stripped down rifle that had been left in one of the bunkers, it didn't work, but he did explain it to me. It sounded pretty simple."  
  
"Hmm...I'll give you a crash course anyway, we tend to use energy weapons and they work a little differently than projectile types."  
  
"Pro...what?"  
  
"We use lasers, what you handled was a weapon that fired bullets. Projectile is a word that describes any kind of solid object fired from a gun."  
  
"Oh, well why didn't you just say so?" Ranma asks innocently.  
  
"Ranma!" Gina mutters kneels down to try and figure out what they might need to get them passed the lasers.  
  
"Gina, Gina, the lasers just shut off!" Britanny yelled.  
  
She looks up in shock. "Why?!"  
  
"Maybe this computer can't 'see' us while where here in this stairwell?" Ranma suggested.  
  
"No way, who would build a security system like this that couldn't detect people?"   
  
"I don't know, but why else would it turn off it's lasers?"  
  
"Bait." Gina said as she consulted her palm top and glasses again.  
  
"Bait? You mean to draw us out?"  
  
"Yeah, it's a tactic I would use."   
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"I've had the palm top on passive scan since I came down here and there is a workable pattern to the lasers, we can get through them."  
  
"How?"  
  
"We have to be very, very fast. Luckily we have a werecheetah on our side that can break the sound barrier."  
  
"Sure, for short periods of time, but these are lasers and they travel at the speed of light Gina. I can't outrun that." Britanny said and looked confused.  
  
"True, but like I said, there is a pattern to the lasers. I'm almost surprised you two didn't see it, but you were dodging a lot."  
  
"What do you mean, sis?"  
  
"These are amplified lasers, that means they take a second to charge before fireing. What makes them dangerous is that the computer is aiming them at you or a pattern you are using, what you need to do is run through them in a completely random pattern that it can't track. Once we reach the other side I can get into the computer and turn everything off."  
  
"I think your forgetting something." Ranma said to Gina.  
  
"What would that be?"  
  
"I don't know, it's at the tip of my tongue, but I just can't say what it is."  
  
"So you don't think we can get past the lasers?" Brit asked.  
  
"The lasers are simple to dodge and a random pattern will make that easier to do, I was thinking of something else that was missing."  
  
"Well we don't have much choice here Ranma." Brit snapped.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I just thought one of you might know what I was missing."  
  
"Not a clue." Gina said. "Alright sis, I want you to pick us up and race us accross that room, do that dodge pattern you developed while training under Mom. Ranma you will have to stay here and wait for the lasers to shut off or Britanny can come back for you, it's up to you."  
  
"I'll wait about ten minutes, but after that I will come after you, I can dodge just about anything with my Ki super charging my reflexes."  
  
"Alright sis, let's go."   
  
Britanny nodded, picked Gina up in her arms and looked out across the room. She couldn't see the other side, but if she was able to hit her full speed getting to the other side would be easy. "NOW!" She yelled and surged forward.  
  
They crossed over thirty meters before the lasers charged up and hit seventy meters by the time they started firing down on them. Ranma could see Gina's force field activate to cover both of them, she also noted that the farther into the room they went the lasers followed them while shutting off the lasers they had passed already. Britanny started dodging, crisscrossing the room from wall to wall, then half a room then she back tracked a bit, then surged forwards for quite a ways before he lost sight of her. Once they vanished Ranma could still see the lasers firing in the distance, she countered to fifty before he decided to move.   
  
She noted that Gina had left her board sitting on the floor and he dragged it into position as a plan occurred to him, the computer wouldn't expect it. Grinning she tossed her pig tail over back over her shoulder and stepped onto the board, the lights flickered on and it rose her into the air. Then she channeled a bit of Ki into the board to connect it to her senses, she would need to feel it to do this right. Then with a grin she leaned forward and the little engine on the board flared to life rocketing her forward, she didn't know what the maximum speed was, but she was already going faster than a car. Seconds later the lasers started and she started skirting the wall and flipping over the lasers, never doing the same technique twice and knew she could keep it up for hours.  
  
"ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!"   
  
Spinning the board in a circle Ranma saw that several more of the dog robots had been released. She poured on the speed and side flipped the board to the wall for about twenty feet or so before dodging past more lasers. Looking ahead Ranma could see that Gina and Britanny had made it to another cubby hole, but this one was a bit larger than the one they had just abandoned. Then the worst thing happened, one of the lasers fired at random and caught the back of the board, the tiny engine exploded and sent Ranma flying. She rolled with the force of the explosion so that she could continue to go forward, but she still wasn't fast enough keep one of the robotic dogs away.  
  
Eye lasers caught her in the shoulder and blew her off her feet, she slid the rest of the way to the sisters and slammed into the wall beside a couple of doors. "Oww..."  
  
"Ranma, you do know that what you just did was really stupid, right?" Gina asked as she crossed her arms and tapped her foot.  
  
"Eh." Ranma shrugged as she rolled to her feet and checked her shoulder. Her Ki had absorbed most of the energy, but it was still burned enough to hurt like hell. "What about the dog things?"  
  
"They're just wandering around now, I'm not sure what they're up to actually."  
  
"Yeah, they look like their just standing their waiting for something to happen to us." Britanny said.  
  
"Where's that computer we were supposed to find?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Probably behind one of those doors or further in." Gina said and pointed a couple of doors behind them. Unlike the one they had used up above, these were just plain doors with no markings on them, just simple metal with a handle.   
  
"Do we need to stop those robots before we move on?"  
  
"No, I don't think they will come into this room." Gina said.  
  
"They had no problem trying to get into the stair well, came right through the wall just to get me."  
  
"I noticed the damage to the wall, well lets pick a door and move on then, once we find a computer I can get this place shut down."  
  
Ranma nodded and chose the door that was closest to here and grabbed the handle, she twisted the handle and the floor below them suddenly fell inward. "Oh shit!" They all yelled and fell into the depths, they hit the bottom and found themselves sliding down a metal slide. It was a steep incline with no lights and no clue where they were going. Seconds later they were all moving at high speed down the slide, Gina grabbed her gun, adjusted the setting on the side and fired it above her head.   
  
"Grab onto me!" She yelled.  
  
One of her first inventions was a gadget gun that could fire suction cup like projectiles with a line attached, over time she had improved on the design, but it was still a major part of her equipment pack.. The sucker dart struck the ceiling of the enclosed slide and she was able to slow her decent to a slow, but one of the things she noticed was that there was no sign of Britanny or Ranma. She could hear them as they descended down the slide below her though, cursing she set the dial on her gun and pulled the trigger and it started to reel out more line to control her downward decent.  
  
**********  
  
Ranma did what he could to slow her downward decent into the unknown sections of the ship, but her hands just couldn't find enough purchase to grab onto anything. Then she heard a hissing sound and she only had second to realize that the slide wasn't under her anymore, she was falling through pitch black darkness. She hit something that wrapped around her and she struggled to get out and figure out what was going on, then she heard some machinery activating and felt herself being lifted into the air and moved around until she was in an upright position.   
  
"Hello?" She asked.  
  
[SPECIMEN CAPTURED]  
  
"Oh great, now what's going to happen?" Ranma muttered, but breathed a sigh of relief as the lights slowly came on and let her see again. It wasn't a very good sight, but it did confuse the hell out of her.  
  
She was wrapped up in an old net and all her struggling had only made things worse, but what she saw below her was even worse. It was the deck of an old wooden ship kind of like the ones she remembered seeing in old books when she'd been going to school a few months back. What she didn't like the look of was that there was a big computer set up on the deck, it was painted like a pirate costume, black base, red body with black detail lines to give it the appearance of clothing. Someone had even placed some metal plates around where the neck should have been to be a collar of some kind, it was a very disturbing sight.  
  
"How in the hell do I keep finding these insane situations?" Ranma muttered, he really tried to ignore the misshapen parrot perched on the edge of the computer's shoulder.  
  
[ARGGG!!]  
  
"Uh huh, this can't possibly get any worse than this."  
  
[INITIATE FULL LEVEL SCAN AND PREPARE FOR REPLICATION]  
  
"Yeah, you do that, whatever that is and let me find a way to escape this mess."   
  
The net lowered to the wooden deck and Ranma was able to see that the rest of the ship didn't exist, it was only the deck itself, she wasn't able to see what was below this though. The deck seemed to be the only thing giving off light, kind of like she was inside a larger room that was cloaked in shadows. As soon as she reached the deck and could stand on her own several machines rose up around Ranma as she struggled against the ropes, but they wouldn't snap like they should have. Rope was usually pretty simple to snap, especially a net like this, but it was a lot stronger than it looked. The machines lit up and bathed her body in light and Ranma got the impression that she was being scanned, just like Gina had done to her on a couple of occasions. Raising her Ki levels a bit more she strained against the ropes of the net they started to give just slightly, creaking as they protested the pressure.   
  
With a final heave Ranma snapped the rope, she wasn't surprised to find that there had been metal cables running through the inside of the rope. There were little strands of metal sticking out of the twine covering, unfortunately it was only one rope several that she would have to break before she could get free. The machines kept her bathed in light, highlighting certain sections of her body in a brighter light as she worked. Snapping more of the rope took her several minutes and by this time the machines had finished their scan and descended back into the floor before she could get free and break them.  
  
[SCAN COMPLETE, STAGE TWO, AGHRRRR!!]  
  
"Well I understand that last part, this thing must think it's a pirate of some kind, but this is just plain silly."  
  
[REPLICATION COMPLETE, DOWNLOADING SCAN INFORMATION]  
  
"Uh huh."  
  
[SUBJECT EXCAPING, RECAPTURING NOW]  
  
"Kiss off you stupid machine." Ranma growled.  
  
As the final note snapped Ranma didn't waste any time tossing it off and stepping out onto the deck, nearby another portion of the deck dropped down and a tube like metal box rose up from below. Surrounding the tube was a series of equipment that totally baffled Ranma, but she needed to be ready for anything. Then it split around it's seams and opened up, smoke and mist wafted out of the tube's interior, then something stepped out of it and into the light. Ranma gasped and decided that destroying this insane computer would be a very good idea, she watched in horror as an exact naked copy of her stepped out of the smoke. The only difference was that her eyes were without the light that all humans had, they were cold and dead as her head turned to look over at Ranma.  
  
[KILL THE INTRUDER]  
  
"Yes master." The copy said.  
  
"Well I can understand you now, how about we just talk this out and forget the fight?" Ranma suggested, she didn't feel like fighting a copy of herself.  
  
"Prepare to die, Ranma Saotome." The copy said and launched her naked self forward in an advanced attack that only a practitioner of the Anything Goes would recognize. Ranma blocked, dropped and rolled out of the way as her mind tried to figure out how this computer had learned hot to copy her attacks and skills. The copy just smirked and attacked again, using lethal moves that could rip through the wood painted steel decking around them like butter. Retaliating as quickly as she could Ranma returned the attack in kind and attempted to break the copy's arm, it shattered like an egg.  
  
Flipping away with a kick to it's face she landed with a smirk. "Take that you useless waste of metal."  
  
"Impressive, your resistance is more than expected." The copy said and tilted it's head to look at her, the shattered pieces of the arm dragged themselves back together. It picked up the arm and reattached it with little trouble and no sign that it would fall any time soon. "Increasing power and skill level to match."   
  
"Oh shit."   
  
The copy moved forward a lot faster than Ranma expected and she was barely able to block dodge the attack, rolling to her feet and jumping into the air, Ranma grit her teeth and tried to come up with a way to defeat this thing. If it had been human she might have done so easy, she had defeated lots of fighters that were better than she was, but it was a robot and wouldn't be affected by the usual tactics. The copy jumped up after her and they were soon trading blows, but it was a lot faster and an elbow smash to her head send Ranma flying into the deck.  
  
She twisted in mid air and bounced off the deck to attack the girl one more time, but it was only then that she noticed that the copy was just hovering above her with no problem. Ranma put it out of her mind for the moment as she ascended into the air and let her aura flare out once more, she knew this fight would take everything she had available and it wouldn't be very pretty. The copy just drifted down to meet her and within moments they were tearing into each other again, this time Ranma didn't hold back and used the copy's own body to stay in the air as they fought. This was the technique that made the Saotome Ryu one of the most feared of all the Anything Goes styles, once they got an opponent in the air they would always have the upper hand.  
  
Unfortunately for Ranma she was beginning to understand that this copy cat knew all of her moves, every little trick and dodge that she knew. She was forced again and again to make up moves on the fly just to stay in the fight, they weren't very good moves either, cheap shots and sneak attacks that allowed her to get around it's defenses for even a quick attack. She briefly considered using the Neko-Ken, but discarded it almost instantly, the thing learned things way to fast and if it did indeed know the technique it would have a ready dodge and would more than likely retaliate in kind.  
  
"You are nothing compared to my power Ranma, you can not win this fight, I'm not even running at full strength yet and you're already starting to sweat. Let me give you a quick death."  
  
"You rusty pile of scrap, there is now way I'll just give up and let you win this fight!" Ranma yelled back.  
  
"Fine, I gave you a chance to do this the hard way. Now you can just die." The copy said as it formed it's own aura of power and struck out at blinding speeds. "I have been given all your memories, your skills, your powers, they all belong to me and I have the ability to surpass them with ease little girl."   
  
Hundreds of blows hit Ranma and she found it impossible to keep track of them and within a blink of an eye she was slamming into the metal floor of the deck, it crumpled around her. This was the curse's fault, if she had been in her male body, the one she had trained in all her life HE would be able to defeat this thing. She wasn't used to fighting at this level in her female body, her timing was off and it was showing. It even claimed to know how to use all her skills and abilities, did that mean it knew about the curse as well? Struggling with all she had left she crawled out of the metal hole and coughed up a bit of blood, her whole body hurt worse than one of Master Julia's workouts.  
  
The copy was there to meet her, but Ranma's head was spinning so much she could barely tell where she was so fighting was out of the question. "I won't give up." She mumbled.  
  
A hand reached down and pulled Ranma to her feet by her hair. "Of course not, killing you would be to easy then."   
  
A back hand to the jaw sent Ranma flying off the deck and into the darkness beyond, she blacked out for several seconds, but when her eyes opened up she found herself cradled in Britanny's arms. "So sport, how goes the battle?"  
  
Ranma groaned. "Not good, that thing knows how to use and counter all my moves and it's able to make it's self a lot stronger than me."  
  
"Sorry I didn't get here in time to help you out sooner, but that stupid slide sent me down into some kind of holding cell, it took me whole minute to rip the door off it's hinges. Then another twenty minutes or so to find my way here and your in a fight." Britanny glared at Ranma. "At least you saved some for me and here's the good part, it doesn't know all my moves yet."  
  
"It's modeled after me, it's my problem." Ranma mumbled as Britanny sat her down carefully.   
  
"We all need a little help upon occasion Ranma, no one is all powerful, not even you and that arrogance of yours that tends to crop up every now and then."  
  
"Heh, so says Miss. Snuti-Boutique."  
  
"Yep, the mall is my second home and my husband loves the outfits I get from that particular store."  
  
"So one of the other intruders has arrived, now I get to kill the both of you." The copy said and tossed it's unbound red hair back.  
  
"Well at least I can tell you two apart." Brit said. "She knows how to make a fashion statement though, running around in the nude went out with the Romans." Britanny uses her speed to grab the copy's arm, picks her up and spins her around at high speed.  
  
I'll-g-get-you-f-for-this-s!" The copy yells.  
  
"Oh yeah, look at the effect centrifugal force has on your chest cute stuff, and now for my final attack, the SUPER AIR SLAM!! HAHAHAHAH!!" Britanny yells and body slams the thing right through the metal decking and into the space below with a loud screech of metal.  
  
Ranma's impressed and a little jealous, she grumbles under her breath about the advantages of being super strong.  
  
"Hah, Britanny Diggers does it again! Oh Yeah, I am the best!!" Britanny yells as she pumps her fist in the air. "OHH OHH OHH!"  
  
"Hey Britanny, have you seen Gina since we ended up down here?" Ranma asked, mainly to get her to stop dancing like an idiot.  
  
"No, but she's around here some place. Probably in a cell like I was in, she should be showing up eventually."  
  
"IDIOTS, I'm right here, now get me down!!" They look up to see Gina hanging upside down from a hole in the ceiling, there is a line wrapped around her foot holding her in place. She starts waving her arms to get their attention, but this sets of one of Einstein's rules and making her spin in a circle. "Help Me!"  
  
"How?!" Britanny yells up to her.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"How do I get up there to help you?"  
  
"I can get up there if you give me a hand." Ranma said, the room wasn't spinning anymore and she had her balance back.  
  
"How?"  
  
"Your strength, just toss me up to that hole and I'll free her from the rope and lower her down, it's only forty feet or so, I can survive a drop from that high easily."  
  
"Good." Britanny says, grabs Ranma by her shirt, lifts her off the ground with a smirk.  
  
"Hey, not this way..." Ranma yells.  
  
And Britanny throws the red headed girl at the ceiling, Ranma angles her body as best she can and counts the seconds as the rises towards the roof. She passed by a shocked Gina and reaches out a hand to grab on to the edge of the hole and pulls herself in with a little roll. Once in place Ranma takes a second to catch her breath and tried not to think about what would have happened if the werecat had missed the hole and splattered her all over the ceiling like a bug on a windshield. Ranma looks the situation over and decides that even if he gets Gina back up here and unstuck there isn't enough rope to climb down with.  
  
"Gina, I'm going to have to pull you back up here, okay?"  
  
"Fine, fine, just get me out of this mess."  
  
Reaching down, Ranma grabs her by the foot and pulls her up with little trouble. He foot was very entangled in the rope though, there was no way it was going to come off there any time soon, it looked like it had knotted itself almost solid. "We need more of this rope before you can get down there, I'll have to crawl up this shaft until I find the other end..."  
  
"No need, this is part of my cable gun, I can just reel it back in now that I've got some leverage again." Gina says as she taps a button on her gun and within seconds it starts to quickly reel in the rope.  
  
"What about the rope on your foot?"  
  
The gun jerks down and slams into Gina's ankle, she glares at Ranma. "You could have told me sooner."  
  
"I just noticed." Ranma says and starts trying to unravel the mess around Gina's ankle, it takes a little while to get it off.  
  
"What are you two doing up there, making out?!" Britanny yells from below.  
  
Gina blushes and smirks at the same time. "If you were a guy right now I would have no problems kissing you." She says and shakes her shoulders to emphasize her chest.  
  
Ranma blushes. "U-um n-n-not right n-now, G-Gina."   
  
"When we get you home I'm going to design you something to carry hot water around in, some kind of thermos."  
  
"Rope's free."   
  
"Well if you want to tie me up I'm all for it."  
  
"Cut it out Gina, let's get out of here, anyway that computer you wanted is down there on the deck of that thing."  
  
"Oh sure, spoil the mood and all." Gina says with pout.  
  
"What mood?" Ranma asks with a blank look of innocence.   
  
With a sigh Gina reels in the rest of her line, set's the suction dart to the metal and tosses the rope out of the hole, it reaches the floor easily and they climb down with no problems. Gina disengages the dart and reels in the line one last time and puts her gun away, she almost wished she'd just rode the slide to it's end, that little trip had taken her forever and from the looks of things, missed out on yet another fight. "So what happened while I was away?"  
  
"Ranma suddenly developed a naked sister that was trying to kill her."   
  
"Huh?"  
  
"How much of our fight did you see?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Not much, I heard some of it, but by the time I was ready to come down here, I slipped and ended up hanging over you two as you talked."  
  
"Let's head on home Gina, I'm really tired now, I thought this would be a relaxing trip after being forced to spend a whole week with Brianna. Now I'm more tired than I was when we left." Ranma said with a sigh.  
  
Considering what Gina and Britanny know of Brianna, and the fact that Ranma was in his female form got them all to giggling. "Just a little while longer Ranma, let me take care of this place and we can eat that food you made, then get on home."  
  
"No problem."  
  
"Oh how cute, the computer thinks its Captain Hook." Gina said as she produced a lap top and started searching for a way to access the odd terminal. "Boy they sure made a mess out of this place didn't they? Well, I've got something here that will make you feel a lot better, yes I do."  
  
[ARGHHH?] The large computer sweat dropped.  
  
Ranma sweat drops. 'Man these girls are weird.'  
  
"Hey Britanny, grab that android and bring it over here, this computer is really odd, I want to look into it's memory tapes." Gina called out from behind the strange computer.  
  
"Um...sure thing Gina, one second." Britanny said.  
  
The copy of Ranma was dug out of the steel decking and dropped in front of the computer just as Gina finished hooking her palm top computer up to it. Nothing happened at first, but then the lights flickered a little and a major portion of the place seemed to power down. She nodded and stepped over to the copy, looked it over for several seconds before opening an access port on the thing's head, and connected it to the palm top as well with a cord. "Thanks Brit, something about this whole place just doesn't seem right to me and I'm not sure why. I hope this computer will be able to supply some of the answers.  
  
Now that it was taken down, Ranma was able to get a better look at it and see that it had been very damaged by Britanny's attack. She was still mad that this was yet another loss to add to her current record, every fiber of her being was seething with resentment over this. Ranma wasn't sure why, but she was tired of losing or barely winning these fights and she had to figure out why she was giving such a poor showing lately. It hadn't taken her long to figure out that her inexperience in her female for had been the reason she lost this fight, it moved so differently and didn't have the power that her male body did. She already understood that girls weren't as weak as she had always thought them to be and with Gina and Britanny along they had proven more than once that they could take care of themselves.   
  
That wasn't the answer, there had to be some reason why she was losing and she couldn't think of one reason why. She toed the thing's foot as Gina worked on it and examined it's memory with her own computer, the foot flopped back and forth in a normal way. Gina looked up at her and grinned. "Pretty different isn't it?"  
  
"I've never seen anything like it." Ranma said with a frown.  
  
"You're mad that it was able to defeat you?"  
  
She nodded. "Yes, I'm getting tired of losing these fights."  
  
"Ranma you've only been training for a few weeks now, we always have to take on threats like this. I think I know what your problem is though."  
  
"What would that be?"  
  
"It's the way you fight Ranma, you always play with your opponents and try to judge their skills. Then you try to avoid hurting them and go for a knock out, the only time you have won any of your fights so far was when you went for the take down. With Daishi you beat him to a stand still, but he still took you down when you left him on the ground and turned your back on him. You overpowered Ryan when you had to fight him too. They are beating you because you keep holding back against them, I think you would have taken out this android just as easilly if you had used your more powerful maneuvers instead of the ones you always depend on to knock them out "  
  
"What are you talking about, I always fight at the highest level I can..."  
  
"Do you Ranma? I think you like to play with your opponents before you get serious, you do it without thinking about it and without your father here controlling your every move you don't quite know what to do."  
  
"She does have a point Ranma." Britanny said. "I've watched you and mom workout in the mornings and you seem to use just enough skill to hold your own, but not enough to make a decisive battle that you can win."  
  
"How can you say that?!" Ranma yelled.  
  
"Ranma if you had used the Neko-ken against this robot at your feet it wouldn't have survived then seconds." Britanny pointed out.  
  
The thought struck Ranma like a bolt of lightning, she didn't know how to reply to that and it was such a simple truth that she was overwhelmed by it. "I-I..."  
  
"Ranma you spent so much time trying to learn the technique, how come you haven't incorporated it into your style? I've watched you over the last few weeks and you spend hours trying to adapt mom's techniques into your own style, but you haven't spent one minute of that trying to fully master the Neko-ken. You may have only mastered it a few days ago, but you've had years to try and gain control of it, why haven't you?"  
  
"I don't know." Ranma whispered and looked away.  
  
"When you can answser that and change the way you look at a battle Ranma, I think you will be able to fight at the level you used to." Gina said as her palm top computer beeped at her. "Now that were finished here we can head on home, I've set up a link to my main computer at home that will allow me to examine this island in more detail and find out just what this place is."  
  
"You don't already know?"  
  
"This little computer isn't powerful enough to break through 'Captain Hook's' security blocks, I need the main computer at home to do that." Gina said and looked a little embarrassed about it.  
  
"Then let's head on home." Ranma said, she had a lot to think about.  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
End Notes - This ending leaves a little bit of the story hanging, but more will be explained in the next chapter so don't worry about it. Another question one might have to ask is why did Brianna act the way she did? Well it's kind of complicated, but it comes down to the fact that she has twice the sex drive a normal person has, she has Gina's hyper active libido and Britanny's over active one. Combined into one body and you get Brianna, she usually uses Genn to relieve the stress, but he's been gone for over a month now and she has been going without because there aren't really any willing men among the Amazons. This and the fact that Ranma was in a pair of shorts that barely covered him caused her hormones to go wild and the rest is history.  
  
I also did this because I needed Ranma to have a bit of experience and maturity, if he's going to have a chance with Sheila he has to grow up a little and seven days in bed with Brianna would make anyone more mature and knowledgeable. Brianna has Gina's smarts so she has created certain devices and techniques that aren't really known to the general public, Ranma got to experience all of them. BWHAHAHAHAH!! O_O  
  
Starting with the next chapter things will be changing for Ranma again as I bring in some familiar friends of his, so be on the looke out for it. ^_^  
  
  
* It has been established in the comic that Gina has a hyper active imagination that is completely perverted and loves to chase after men. Her first meeting of Séance is a good example, she spent two minutes staring at him while envisioning them doing the 'wild thing' in all sorts of ways. She really likes men with tight butts, Ace, Séance, and Ryan all meet this little requirement, as does Ranma. Brianna has the same weakness, but it takes different forms. ^_^;; 


	8. Chapter 08

Notes - Time for another bit of fun in the Gold Digger universe, it's long, it's funny, and should add quite a bit to the story if all goes well. Let me know what you think. ^_^  
  
Web Site: http://shi_hanna.tripod.com/  
  
**********  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 08  
Cory D. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c) 2002  
**********  
  
She was a perfect replica of Ranma's cursed form, the same breasts, the same size shoes, the computer even said she had the exact number of hairs in her pig tail. The only difference between her and Ranma was that she wasn't alive, instead she was an android of some kind according to Gina and she wasn't going to pass up a chance to look at a design she had never seen before. So far it had put all of her own designs to shame in complexity and technology. So far Gina had found that it had Pneumonic memory matrices that put everything she had ever built to shame, it gave the android the ability to completely take over a persons life without anyone knowing. According to her computers the android had been given an almost moment to moment down load of Ranma's life, giving it all his knowledge, abilities, and habits Ranma had ever had. She wasn't sure how it was done yet, but she wouldn't stop until she had figured out how it was done.  
  
Ranma didn't know what to do about it either, but the android gave him the creeps, less than twelve hours before it had been kicking the snot out of him with relative ease. He was still ticked off about that, but he had made some decisions about the battle and knew that it would never happen again. There was no way he would just sit by and accept another defeat after this one, Gina had been right when she told him that he needed to stop holding back and going for the knock out as quick as possible. His old man had always tried to drive into his head that he needed to fight with his whole ability and not to hold back no matter who it was. At the time Ranma hadn't really cared what he had to say, but after the last few weeks he had come to realize that the old fool was right after all. He needed to alter the way he fought and to do that he needed to change the way the thought about things.   
  
A few months ago that would have been impossible, but now that Gina had fixed him up with her machines he could do so with ease. All it would require would be a few weeks of practice and mental exercises and he would be able to do it instinctively, it was one of the prime tenants of his style, the ability to adapt. On the way back from the island he had spent a lot of time brooding over what Gina said to him, at first he had tried to deny it, but as time went on he started to see certain patterns in his life where she had been absolutely correct about his actions. She had pointed out one of his failures and didn't like to think about it, but there was no way he was going to just back down from this and shrug it off, she was right and he had to make sure he was able to fix the problem before it got him killed.  
  
Now this android was laid out on an operating table down in one of Gina's underground rooms below the mansion. She had built the room so that everyone could see what she was doing, whether she was performing an operation with Penny or working on some equipment for later use on one of her expeditions. He didn't really know what to think about this android, it had come very close to defeating him with its enhanced strength and nearly invulnerable body. He had bruises all over his own body from where she kicked the shit out of him during their fight, the thing had known all his moves, all his counters, everything he might possibly do to fight it and used that against him in the worst possible way. He was a bit surprised that Gina was operating on it like it was a real person, slowly performing a kind of autopsy to figure out how it ticked, or that was how it had been explained to him. It's chest was currently laid open, the skin peeled back from a metal and plastic frame that had Gina absolutely fascinated as she tinkered with some of its innards.   
  
"Ranma?"  
  
He turned to see Brianna stepping into the room, she grinned at him and waved. "Hi Bri, how are you doing this morning?"  
  
"Pretty good, are you okay?" She asked.  
  
"Oh sure, though I want to give that thing another try."   
  
Brianna purred a little and grinned a little wider. "I won't go easy on you."  
  
"Ha, after a what we did for the last few days I wouldn't doubt it. It was good training though."  
  
"Hah, I wouldn't call it training." Brianna said.  
  
"So when can I give it another try?"  
  
"How about tonight?"   
  
"Hmm...alright, but no cheating this time I want to have a chance to win." Ranma said and waggled a finger in Brianna's face.  
  
"What?! I never cheat!"   
  
"Yeah right girl, you set that thing up give you the best advantage."  
  
"I did not, I just built the system myself and know all the little details..."  
  
"See." Ranma said with a grin.  
  
"Hey, you agreed to use the cuffs."  
  
"Man I hate those things, they messed up my coordination and chaffed my wrists, look, I've still got some bruising from those things."  
  
"Well you can try some of the other versions I've developed, okay? How about a full body suit then?"  
  
"Fine, but make sure you have the other pieces ready to hook up this time. Those missing pieces kept me from using certain techniques."  
  
Brianna rolled her eyes. "You've only told me that a hundred times now Ranma, I've got it covered."  
  
"Cool, see you after dinner then."  
  
"Alright." Brianna said and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek and winked at him. "Don't be late."  
  
"Yeah, yeah." He said as he played with his pigtail and blushed.  
  
**********  
  
"Master Julia?" Ranma said as he walked into the living room.  
  
"Let me guess, you're bored and want to learn something?"  
  
"Yep." Ranma agreed.  
  
"Do you have any energy left after a week with Brianna and going on that trip with Gina?"  
  
Ranma blushed, again. "Yeah, I need to do something, sitting around is just getting on my nerves so if there is something I can do?"  
  
"How about you let me have him for the rest of the day?" Dr. Diggers said as he walked into the room, he was decked out in his form fitting black Mage Suit. "He already missed several classed because of Brianna."  
  
"That magic training?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Yes, you still have that fluctuating aura so I have to teach you some of the basics while we have the chance."  
  
"I'm not sure now would be a good time sir." Ranma said hesitantly.  
  
His eyes narrowed. "Why would that be, we have to do this before you start to cast spells on accident."  
  
"There seems to be something wrong with my Ki, sir, like it's out of balance or something. I have to constantly adjust it and lately it's been causing me problems, sending chills through my body and making me shake."  
  
"Are you ill?" Dr. Diggers asked.  
  
"I don't know, since my Ki keeps losing it's balance my skills aren't up to sustaining me in a proper fight and I have to regain my balance before it gets me killed."  
  
"Ranma, last week's practice didn't help?" Julia asked.  
  
"Not really, my Ki is more in balance, but now when it goes out of wack I get the shivers and can't practice for several seconds."  
  
Dr. Diggers concentrated and cast a spell around Ranma to see his aura again, as his eyes adjusted he noticed that there was a large brown section of Ranma's aura that was hovering around his stomach. This was yet another new aura, but one he'd never seen before, this one seemed to focusing it's energies right into Ranma's stomach. "Are you having any stomach pains?"  
  
"No sir?"   
  
"I have an idea, but you need to learn to do some deep meditation techniques. Are you up to it?"  
  
"I know several already sir..." Ranma started.  
  
"Not like this one, I normally wouldn't even teach it to you this early in your training, but I think you may benefit from it and the sooner the better."  
  
Nodding, Ranma stood. "Well let's get to it."  
  
"Follow me." Dr. Digger's said. "And stop calling me, sir!"  
  
"Um...yes, s...Dr. Diggers." Ranma said.  
  
"Good enough."   
  
The mansion had long ago been divided into certain sections, the main floor belonged to everybody, the underground stuff belonged to Gina, Britanny, and Brianna. The top floor belonged to their parents and Dr. Diggers had used his magic to pull off something that Gina had done below the house on a smaller scale. Some of the rooms on the upper floors were bigger on the inside than they should have been, one of these rooms was the Library, where Dr. Diggers stored all his magical, historical, and medical books. Ranma wasn't sure how many books the room held, but there had to be thousands of them along the walls and on the shelves that took up the back portion of the room. In the center of this was a large circle with symbols painted on the floor in and around the circle.   
  
"Sit down in the circle and cross your legs Ranma."  
  
"Okay."   
  
Sitting across from him, Dr. Diggers took up a similar position and pulled a scroll out of thin air and handed to Ranma. "Study that and memorize it, that will be today's lesson, it will help you attain a balance between your mind, body, and soul. Once you master that you will be better able to control your Ki, I think you are having problems is because you are not totally balanced and that is affecting your body in someway. Once achieved you will be able to fully control your Ki with even more precision. From there we will move on to controlling your magical abilities."  
  
Ignoring Dr. Diggers, Ranma was already halfway through the scroll and it's fascinating contents. He'd never thought of attaining this kind of meditation before, it would allow him to master everything about his body, to control his emotions, the way his Ki flowed through his body, even how to form a controlled aura that he could already see uses for in a fight. As he read he started to follow the basic steps of the scroll and hoped to have the beginnings of it mastered by the time he finished reading it. After several minutes Ranma nodded and sat the scroll down beside him and looked at Dr. Diggers, he'd been pretty quiet while he was reading. Ranma blinked and gaped at the old guy, he was hovering about three feet off the floor with a gentle white glow about him as he meditated. His hands were folded together and the eyes were closed as he just hovered there and waited.  
  
This must have been one of those things he could accomplish with this technique if he mastered it, something like this could help out immensely in his next fight. It would be a never ending aerial battle and allow him to pull off the hardest moves of his school with ease, grinning he looked the scroll over one more time and started to meditate. He copied Dr. Diggers 'stance' as he meditated and slowly centered himself as he ran down the scrolls list of instructions for achieving the perfect balance. One of the first things he realized was that his Ki and body were very balanced already, giving him quite a bit of power already, but his mind wasn't even close to being ready to join in yet. "This doesn't seem to work..." Ranma muttered.  
  
"Why is that Ranma?" Dr. Diggers asked in a soft voice as he floated there.  
  
"My Ki and body will enter the meditation easily, but my mind can't grasp the kind of peaceful thoughts that this thing says I need."  
  
"Ranma, your father has taught you how to use your body for years, you have mastered quite a bit of your aura, but you have never had to use your mind for anything like this. You said yourself that your fighting style makes you react without thought, that is exactly the opposite of what you need to do in order to learn this. You are blanking your mind to meditate, you can't do that with this technique, you have to control the energies as they flow through your body, mind, and soul. It will take a bit of practice, maybe a week or so, but can learn this and once you do learning all the other things you need will be easy. This only the first step after all, now focus on your inner energies and learn the control you need."  
  
"Yes sir." Ranma said.  
  
Dr. Diggers leaned forward and his head exploded into his Flaming Skull of Death, he started talking in his Death voice. "Don't Call ME Sir!"  
  
"AGHAAA!!"  
  
"Now focus on the lesson and begin." Dr. Diggers said in a calm tone of voice.  
  
**********  
  
Several hours later Dr. Diggers finally let Ranma go, he was more than happy to get out of that room. He felt like an idiot when it came to this magic stuff and had no clue where to even begin with it. With his martial arts he could make up new moves and knew all the ins and outs of any particular style he'd ever encountered. Magic was a whole different world of things to learn and he had learned very quickly that he had barely scratched the surface, for the last five hours he'd been sitting in the middle of a circle trying to learn how to move air with his mind. He had never had to do anything so hard in his life and that old fart had just hovered there and looked down his nose at him like it was easy.  
  
Ranma felt like walking out on the bastard, but he kind of understood what he was doing teaching him this way. It was a stupid test to see if he had the determination to even learn magic. This headache was going to get old real quick though, five hours of using your brain to push air around, a simple spell according to Dr. Diggers, and he wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for a few days. He was a fighter, he ran around, he jumped, he fought great battles because they were fun. What he didn't like to do was sit around on the floor and push at the 'AIR' with his mind for fun. Where was the challenge? The Danger? He sighed, slumped over and headed out back, he had to work some of the kinks out of his back to make sure he start to lose his edge with all this sitting.  
  
If this was what magic was always going to be like then he wouldn't do it, as things stood right now he had no intention of ever going very far with this. He had other thing to that were far more important than sitting in the middle of the floor anyway. Looking in the sky he figured he had two or three hours before he had to meet Brianna so he did a few quick stretches to loosen the screaming muscles in his back and started to work out. He started slow to make sure he was strong enough, then filled his body with Ki and leapt about forty feet into the air and started his work out. Just so he wouldn't piss off Dr. Diggers Ranma also spends the time trying to focus his mind through the...'what did he call it?' Breeze Cantrip, almost instantly his headache came back and nearly made him mess up one of his rebounds, but he ignored it and focused past the pain like his old man taught him to so long ago.  
  
His increase in concentration, something he can't seem to do while sitting on his ass in a circle on the floor, paid off almost instantly as the headache decreased slightly. Ranma could feel energy flowing through his body as he jumped and continued to focus on the cantrip spell, the energy in his body was nothing like Ki, but he'd expected that. What he wasn't expecting was the amount of energy the cantrip seemed to call up, he could feel it filling his body with every passing second. Strangely enough it seemed to be flowing through his body differently than the way his Ki did, kind of like he was getting aroused. Yet that didn't quite describe it either, he landed by the house and let the energy fill his hands like he did with his Ki attacks.   
  
Instead of his normal bright blue color, this energy formed into a pure white sphere of energy. It wasn't hot or cold, just a swirling mass of white and gray. He imagined the pattern that Dr. Diggers had told him to use when casting this cantrip spell and wasn't all that surprised when the sphere vanished as he made the wave motion that set off the cantrip spell. With a gasp he felt the energy rush out of his body, but other than that he couldn't even tell that he'd just cast a spell. Everything around him was super calm, there wasn't a thing stirring that even hinted at a breeze and he though for a second that it had failed, but then he felt it. Somewhere nearby there was something gathering in force, he frowned a little and wondered what kind of useless spell took all this time to get going.   
  
Then his danger sense went off and he dove to the side, rolled and came up on his feet as this gigantic gust of wind thundered through the back yard. The grass was nearly pulled out of the ground, the trees swayed, tiles were blown off the roofs of nearby houses, and the swing set in the neighbors yard was lifted up like a little toy and tossed into their swimming pool with a huge splash of water. It lasted about thirty seconds, actually dragging water out of said pool and flooding the yard beyond that one in a spray of water before it finally stopped and the noise died down. Ranma gaped at the destruction around him, unable to comprehend how a cantrip, something Dr. Diggers had explained was small, useless, only good for practice and only good for limited effects that couldn't hurt anybody.   
  
"Whoa!"  
  
"Ranma what the hell did you just do?!" Dr. Diggers yelled as he stalked into the back yard. "I felt that thing you just did go off like a bomb, every magic user in the city probably just felt what you just did!"  
  
"I was just trying to cast that cantrip again." Ranma explained.  
  
"A Breeze Cantrip can't rip up a yard, pick things up, and drain a pool!"  
  
"I don't know, I just did what you showed me, I swear!" He snapped right back, the jerk had been the one to show how to do this, it's not his fault it was that big.  
  
"Tell me how you cast that spell please." Theo growled, this kid seemed to have the ability to constantly surprise everyone he was around with actions like this.  
  
"I was practicing when I felt that energy you told me about up in the library a little while ago, at first I just kind of focused on it while I was moving around and compared it to my Ki. I could feel it filling my body so I landed and focus it into my hands to see what it would look like and created a small white ball of light."  
  
"Then?"  
  
"I pictured that pattern in my head that you showed me and made that gesture to set the spell off with a rush of energy. The ball vanished and everything went quiet for a few seconds and I thought I'd messed up again, but then that giant gust came up from behind me and blew through this yard, theirs, and that one way down there with a giant blast of air."  
  
Theo shook his head. "You said your body was full of energy?"  
  
"How much of this did you use?"  
  
"It all drained out of me before I could stop it."  
  
"You're just a beginner, you should not be able to increase the power of a spell like that and I've never heard of a Breeze spell that did anything like this." Theo said as he motioned with his arm.  
  
"Idon'tknowhowIdidit!" Ranma said and ducked his head.  
  
"..." Theo said, he could see his wife laughing her ass off in one of the nearby windows and pointing at him as she kicked her legs in the air. This was going to be one of those days he decided, this kid was going to be a challenge if he ever saw one. One other was obvious as well, he was a natural at using magic, he wondered why he had never accidentally used it before now? Was it the curse?  
  
"Um...what are we going to do about those guy's yards?" Ranma asked nervously.  
  
"Fix them...is that a swing set at the bottom of that pool?"  
  
"Heheheheh." Ranma laughed and played with his pig tail.  
  
"Sigh!" Dr. Diggers flared his aura and cast a restructuring spell he'd designed a few years back and in a flash of light everything was back to normal except for the wet grass.  
  
**********  
  
Zelda wasn't having a good day, though to be fair, she hadn't had a good day since she joined up with Peewee the Brat, or better known as Lord Talon. He had enhanced her to make her stronger, faster, and incredibly dangerous in exchange for serving him. At the time it has seemed like the greatest idea, but now a few years later she was beginning to realize just what a horrible job she had agreed to. When compared to a normal person she outclassed them in every way, but as one of Peewee's body guards she just couldn't get a break. No matter what the situation was, she always seemed to end up in a bad way, in jail, in traction, on the receiving end of Peewee's temper. Like right now, she was in jail, that was pretty normal for the most part, but she had been her for some time. This time she had been in jail for over a month, Peewee normally got freed within a week because he was a minor and his mother came to get him, but they usually let her out at the same time.   
  
For the first time in a long time she wondered if he had decided to let her rot while he bioengineered a new set of body guards for his plans. She had sacrificed everything for him, he held her soul in the palm of his hand and if he squeezed she would be one dead servant. She stood up and started pacing her cell as she thought to herself, it was about twice the size of a normal one, but it had been designed to hold a person like herself. The walls were made out of special materials that she couldn't shatter with her hands, they absorbed energy in some way so she couldn't use her ability to generate electricity, but had no idea what happened to it then. Even the door to the cell was about a foot thick and made out of the same stuff as the walls, but it had a small hole in it near the floor where they shoved food in to keep her alive. She hated it here, there was nothing to do and only a few things that she could practice to keep in shape.  
  
She hadn't even seen her friends since she arrived and as far as she could tell they had all been tossed in cells and then forgotten about. The only thing she had that brought her any comfort at the moment was a small window, it over looked the main yard of the prison and allowed her to see everybody else that was being held when they went out into the yard to move around a bit. There seemed to be a good number of female prisoners, though none of them were enhanced like she was. That enhancement must have been why she wasn't allowed out of her cell, it would have certainly been easy enough to escape if they had. She sighed and counted out the twenty steps of her cell, turned, and did it again.  
  
It was as she was doing this for about the fiftieth time that she heard something at the edge of her hearing, after five weeks of being stuck in this hole she had learned what kinds of sounds this place made. She didn't have a TV, no Radio, nothing to keep her occupied except her own thoughts and it was driving her mad. Usually the guards would walk by and taunt her or threaten her in some way, hell, even the prisoners were supposed to make her life a lot worse than it was. Instead she hadn't talked to anyone since the day they threw her in here, even when the food was delivered it was by this little robot that roved from one cell to another. So when she heard the foot steps coming down the hall she knew it wasn't a guard, they didn't walk by the cell in this prison, so it had to be something else. They drew closer and closer and just as she was about to go look out the hole at the bottom of the door she heard their voices.   
  
"Is this the one?" Asked a male voice.  
  
Zelda had heard that certain female prisoners were 'given' time with some of the male prisoners from the men's sections of the prison, but had never thought she would be on anyone's list. Her abilities still worked though even in this cell, she just couldn't use them on the walls to escape, so she was safe enough even if they did come in for that. So she charged a bit of electricity in her hand and watched for the door to open, she would kill whoever had decided to use her as a victim, no man had the right to do that. The electricity turned bright blue as it arched across her hands silently, then something odd happened. There was a loud bang and the door caved in a bit from the outside, almost as if someone had hit it with something.  
  
Bang! Bang! Bang!  
  
With each hit the door gave just a little more, then with a final hit the door shattered into large chunks and fell to the floor with a clang. She staggered back in shock, that had been the last thing she had expected. Some of the rubble was kicked out of the way and she was able to see Peewee as he stood on the other side and he glanced at Zelda with his evil smirk. There was a huge guy beside him that looked like he could rip phone books in half with his bare hands. "Zelda, it's time to go. We have some planning to do as we get our revenge on Gina Diggers for this mess."  
  
"Sure, let's go." She said, then noticed that the man standing behind Peewee was massaging his fist and frowning at it for hurting. He was obviously oriental and a lot younger than most of the usual guys that Peewee attracted to his little group. Daishi was oriental, but he was world wise and knew about a lot of different things. This guy seemed to be a bit different, she looked him over and wondered for a second why he seemed to look familiar. He was wearing a faded yellowish green shirt, black pants with the bottom part of the leg tied up with rope to keep them from getting in the way as he moved and fought, simple shoes, and had this huge backpack on his back that seemed to be straining the straps around his shoulders. There was also a tiger striped bandana on his head to keep a mop of unruly black hair out of his eyes, he also looked like he wanted to kill someone.   
  
"Who's the goof, sir?"  
  
He glared at her.  
  
Peewee ignored him and grinned at Zelda. "Daishi didn't come to get us, so he's either dead or doing something that I wouldn't like. Mom told me to get out of this on my own, she had other things to do and it would have taken her a few months to get around to us with her busy schedule. This is Ryoga Hibiki, he's that guy that I cursed at Jusenkyo, he has agreed to serve me for a cure to his curse and some enhancements so that he can get his revenge on a Ranma Saotome. Do you recognize that name?"  
  
"Not really, sir, have we met him before?"  
  
"He's the guy that defeated Daishi over Jusenkyo."  
  
"The one that turned into a girl?" Zelda gasped, she could remember Gina muttering about someone getting cursed in such a way.  
  
"The very same, well come along, we have to get back to work and get our revenge on Gina Diggers for this."  
  
"What about the guards?"  
  
"They...are being taken care of." Peewee said nervously.  
  
"Are we going to get Ionis?"  
  
"He's been getting a portal set up to port us out of here with his magic."  
  
Stepping out of the cell Zelda was looking forward to getting another chance at Britanny Diggers, the bitch had a serious butt kicking coming to her. She looked over at Ryoga and saw that he was restraining himself from killing Peewee, the glare and clenched fists were a dead give away. The guy obviously didn't seem to be able control his emotions, they all flashed across his face and were easy to read. It was also pretty normal for everyone that served Peewee to act like this, there was something about the little kid that made him extremely dangerous. She had met his mother at one time and nearly wet her pants, glowing eyes and an evil growl was more than enough to scare the hell out of her. Even Daishi had been scared of that woman and he wouldn't admit fear unless he was forced to and even then would deny it with his dying breath.  
  
"Come along, Ionis is just down the hall." Peewee snapped and started walking.  
  
"Yes sir."   
  
"Don't order me around you little pipsqueak, you either cure this curse or I'll kill you!" Ryoga yelled.  
  
"We made a deal, live up to your end and I'll live up to mine. Or would you like to suffer the other consequences I mentioned." Peewee said as he narrowed his eyes, they started to glow.  
  
"Ah..." Ryoga looked nervous. "Alright."  
  
"Excellent, now come along we can't waste anymore time here."  
  
'That was new.' Zelda thought as she glanced at the new guy, he was kind of cute and she liked the little fangs.  
  
Ryoga just growled.  
  
Peewee smirked.  
  
**********  
  
"Now focus that energy like you would your aura Ranma, let it form around your body like a shield." Theo said and demonstrated what he wanted.  
  
Ranma nodded and focused, once he'd felt the energy tapping into it had become a whole lot easier then he'd expected. Within seconds his aura flared a bright blue and made the his clothing ruffle a bit as it hummed. "How's that?"  
  
"Use magic Ranma, not Ki, they are similar I'll admit, but there are differences between the two. You have to learn how to use one or the other."   
  
"They feel the same to me, it's so hard to tell them apart..." Ranma said as his aura died down and resurged a second later, this time it was white in color.  
  
"Much better, now slowly focus on those meditation techniques I showed you."  
  
At first nothing happened, but Ranma had figured out that this magic aura worked almost like his Ki aura so he could use them the same way. His aura flared out a few minutes later and nearly tripled in size as it lit up the room around them. "Okay, how's this?"  
  
"Now picture that pattern in your mind, but I want you to only use a portion of the power you've collected for this. It should only take a tiny portion of what you have now..."  
  
"I still don't understand that."  
  
"I've explained this, your aura is your magic and if you use it all you won't be able to use your magic until you've had a chance to rest and recharge your energies. If you use only a tiny bit at a time it will last a lot longer and you will always be able to have your magic available, it is only in the most extreme situations that you would use all of your aura up."  
  
"...but I can just draw more in from around me, why should I have to worry about using to much?"  
  
"Ranma, your magic can't just be sucked out of the very air, it has to come from within you and be built up over time. You are trying to use the least amount of magic to accomplish as much as you can. Now focus on that pattern and cast the spell, I just want a little one this time, not that giant gust you did earlier."  
  
"Yes sir." Ranma mumbled.  
  
He could picture the pattern easily enough, but every time he tried to use just a tiny portion of it he felt like he was holding back an ocean of power. The little slip in concentration after he tried to tap into just a small amount and he would be flooded with energy. Again and again he would grasp onto it and have to fight to keep everything he had available from rushing out in one giant wave. Again and again he tried and failed to use just a small amount of power, it seemed as it had to be all or nothing. It just wasn't working and he didn't understand why, he was following Dr. Digger's instructions to the letter. Focus your aura, picture a pattern, and channel a bit of magic through it to set off the effect. It seemed simple enough and drawing in the magic wasn't a problem, what the hell was he doing wrong?  
  
After about ten minutes he sighed and relaxed his aura. "I can't seem to grasp onto smaller amounts, every time I do it's like everything has to be used or nothing can."  
  
"Keep trying, I know you can do it with a bit of practice. This is only the first day after all, you'll get the hang of it eventually and we can move onto the next spell."  
  
Theo left the room and Ranma went back to practicing, but after half an hour he had to stop and rest again. He had this massive headache and it was driving his crazy so he decided to take a break and headed down to the kitchen. He didn't get far though, about halfway there he ran into Brianna as she was running down the hall. She smiled and waved at him as she ran by, a group of Peebos and Peebo-TIE's following close behind. He wondered why they had various little attachments like little antennas with flags, tiny little plastic finger attachments, and were chanting something about the Braves being on TV. What the hell was this about? He followed after her and found her setting up the huge TV to show something that he had no experience with, American Baseball, the Atlanta Braves to be exact.  
  
"Ranma, want to watch the game with me?" Brianna asked as she sat a giant bowl of popcorn on the table as the Peebos arranged themselves on the couch to watch the game, they looked excited as they waved their little flags and plastic hands.  
  
"I've still got some practicing to do or Dr. Diggers will get mad, I'm just going to grab something to drink and try and find something to aleve this headache I've got." He said.  
  
"Ahhh, well maybe you can catch the next game in a couple of days. I've been looking forward to this all week."  
  
"Maybe, well have fun. Where is everyone else anyway?"  
  
"I'm not sure, Gina likes to watch baseball in her own way. Britanny isn't here right now, and Stripe is off seeing about a new job. He got dressed up in a suit and everything. He looked pretty good too, so I think he wanted to make a good impression. He didn't want miss this game either so I'm recording it for him."  
  
Ranma nodded, he didn't care about this kind of thing at all, so he headed for the kitchen again. He wandered over to a gadget Gina had spent about a month designing, it looked like a large microwave built into the wall with the door missing and an advanced looking touch screen on the side. Everyone who lived in the house had their name programmed into the device, he tapped it and saw a list appear below his name and tapped a word. The hole lit up and after a few seconds a large bottle of orange juice appeared. Gina's abilities to make weird devices never failed to surprise him, he wasn't sure how it worked, but the thing came in handy for so many things. Slamming the whole bottle he moved over to the fridge and grabbed some leftovers and ate a quick snack to help settle his stomach.  
  
"Hey Ranma, how is your training going?" Julia asks as she walked in.  
  
"Badly, I'm doing everything he said to do and I still can't get it."  
  
"Really, well casting spells can be quite complicated at times."  
  
"Casting the spell doesn't seem to be the problem."  
  
"Huh? What's the problem then?"  
  
"Well accessing the magic is easy, I've got tons of magic I can use for casting the spell. My problem is that I have too much magic to call on and every time I want to cast a spell it seems that I have to use all the magic I have built up or I can't cast a spell. Using smaller amounts is impossible."  
  
"I've been around Theo long enough to know that is really weird."  
  
"I'll figure it out, but right now I've got a headache from trying to use those small amounts and keeping the rest bottled up. It's like trying to hold back an ocean and takes a hundred times more concentration than using my Ki normally would."  
  
"You have a knack for pulling out strange new ways to do things at the last minute Ranma, you'll get this as well."  
  
"I hope so." Ranma said as he got up and stretched a little. "Well I'm going to go back up and try out a couple of ideas I've got.   
  
**********  
  
He wasn't quite certain why he did it, but Ryoga opened his eyes and sat up to look around. Then he recalled what he'd agreed to do for an opportunity to gain his revenge on the hated Ranma Saotome and growled to himself as he climbed off the metal table. He stood there for several seconds ignoring the fact that he was naked with a conveniently placed shadow hiding certain bits from the unwanted observers as he looked around the strange room. There wasn't anyone in the small room, the only thing he could see was the metal table, a computer, and a futuristic looking chair that was connected to the ceiling by a long bar that would allow it to circle around the metal table quite easily. He looked himself over and wondered what the kid had done to him, it wasn't like he had much of a choice in the matter and he already knew that he'd do anything for a cure. His curse was horrible, being on everyone's lunch menu, being so small that girls kept picking him up and taking him home to be their pet.   
  
It was horrible, they all had this thing for pink and always had two or more pets that thought they could eat him if they wanted to. It had only been about six weeks or so since he'd received his curse at the hands of this kid, but he seemed to find himself in some situation like that on a weekly basis, the first had been Kimiko and her scream of Kaaaaaaawwwwwwiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" and pure cuteness, it was enough to give him cavities, then that Yuka girl, she had been nice and all, but after she nearly poisoned him with a simple soup and that had been the end of that. Three days in pig form with the runs hadn't been very fun either, that girl would be dangerous to whoever she ever married. Then Makoto, Akiko, and Lum (Shudder) she had been the last one and he planned to never let a girl get near him again. She hadn't been into pink like a normal girl, no, she had some martial arts ability to create electricity that was used to shock her boyfriend into submission. Nine times out of ten he'd been nearby and gotten hit as well, he'd never been as happy as the day he'd gotten lost and wandered away from that house. It had been a death trap pure and simple, no matter what he did he would end up being on the end of something dangerous.  
  
Flexing his arms to see if they had changed any was a surprise, he had always been strong, but now he was very strong. His muscles seemed to bulge and with suppressed power as they flexed and strained against his skin, all his muscles seemed to be the same way. He could feel the difference in the way they moved, it would take several days for him to learn how he moved again. His balance had been altered with the change, but that would have to wait until he got his hands on some clothing. Where was his pack, he always had something in there for emergencies. Walking around the room he spotted a door, concentrated on it and made his way over. So long as it was in sight he could usually find his way, eventually, it only took him ten minutes to get over to it. That damned chair seemed to get in his way ever step of the way, but that didn't stop him and he celebrated when he reached the door.  
  
It opened as he approached, there was a small hallway on the other side that had doors every ten feet or so. Most of them were empty rooms or filled with little boxes, but he got lucky and found his pack sitting in the corner of the forth room. After dressing and tying his loose pants around his shins he lifted the pack up and went to find the door, it took twenty minutes, a new record for him since hadn't been looking at the door while he dressed. He wanted to get out of here, but that little kid had a promise to keep so he went looking for him, that other guy with the goatee, or the bald chick with the great....blush. In her prison uniform she had looked kind of ugly, but once they arrived at Peewee's home she had gone to her room and come out in this skin tight green outfit that left nothing to the imagination.  
  
After wandering around for a few hours and ending up back in the original room at least a dozen times he found a set of stairs and made his way up, down, to the side, up again, and down until he found himself standing in a stone hallway covered with tapestries. Now he was confused, the kid had taken him and the other two to a relatively normal looking house, he remembered the carpet and wooden walls. There hadn't been any kind of stone anywhere to be seen, when had this portion of the house been added? The hanging rugs were really weird too, they showed scenes of dragons sleeping, posing, eating some hapless human sacrifice, fighting, flying, casting spells and things along that nature. He'd never seen anything like it before and would have hung around to see what else was available, but headed off to find the kid instead. Getting the cure was all he could think about, everything else would have to wait until he found his way back again.  
  
Finding a staircase that went up, he followed along until it started making weird turns and eventually found himself in some house he'd never been in before. Then he saw the bald chick relaxing on the couch in that body hugging outfit as she watched a baseball game, he didn't know women liked baseball, they usually did other things to keep occupied. "Hey." He said as he entered the room and stood behind the couch.  
  
"Hey, where you been?"  
  
"Just visiting the carpet room." He said with a shrug.  
  
"Huh?" Now Zelda looked confused.  
  
"Ryoga! There you are! Where the hell have you been? You shouldn't even have woken up for another twelve hours or so."  
  
"Just wandering around, found my pack and started looking for you after I woke up." He said with a shrug.  
  
"Well come along, I want to explain what I did to you while you are still here. That direction sense of yours is going to be a pain the ass, I did everything I could to cure it, but it seems to be some kind of learned response."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"It certainly doesn't seem to be something physically or genetically wrong with you so I can only say that you learned it somehow."  
  
"It's a family curse, my mom and dad are cousins so they both have it to some extent and I got a double dose of it. My life was cast into the deepest pit of hell because of it, if my dog was here he could lead me around though."  
  
"Like a seeing eye dog?" Peewee asked.  
  
"Yeah, my family bred these dogs for just that. They have the directions sense we are usually born without and can always get us to where we have to go, but I haven't seen Shirokuro for a long time now."  
  
"Would it be at your home?"  
  
"Probably, they always go back there when we get lost without them."  
  
"Where do you live, I'll have Ionis pop on over there and pick the dog up for you." Peewee said as he led them into a small room with a desk and a large computer.  
  
Ryoga had to think about if for a minute, he hadn't been home in so long that he couldn't remember what his house looked like. "Um...it's near Mt. Fuji...I think..."  
  
Peewee almost facefaulted, but controlled himself at the last instant and shook his head instead. "You don't even know where you live?"  
  
"OF COURSE I KNOW WHERE I LIVE!!" Ryoga bellowed. "Right next to Mt. Fugi, I remember looking out my window and there it was, big as life and hard to miss."  
  
"Ryoga that describes 90% of the houses in Tokyo, I need something a little more accurate than that. Like it's address."  
  
"Well I have that, never helped me before though. I haven't been home in three years or so..." Ryoga said nervously.  
  
"IONIS!!"  
  
The well dressed guy with the gotee walked into the room and gave Peewee a little bow. "You called boss?"  
  
"I need you to take Ryoga here home to retrieve his dog."  
  
"A d-d-dog? Um...why?"  
  
"He has a lousy sense of direction and needs it to get around."  
  
"Yes sir." Ionis was confused, but that was pretty normal for him. He was a magic user, not whatever it was that Peewee seemed to think he was. "Well Ryoga, where's your house?"  
  
"Near Mt. Fuji."   
  
"AGHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Peewee yelled and had to restrain himself from committing stress induced murder. His eyes glowed and made Ryoga and Ionis back up a couple of steps. "GO, NOW BEFORE I KILL YOU!!" He snarled.  
  
"Y-yes Lord Talon." Ionis stuttered as he pulled out his spell book and dragged Ryoga out of the room. "Well Ryoga, lead the way."  
  
"Sure." Ruummbbllee... "Grab an umbrella, sounds like it might rain pretty soon."  
  
**********  
  
Beep...beep...beep  
  
With a twist of her screwdriver Gina finished off the last of the repairs she needed to make to the Ranma-chan android that she had been studying for some time now. That old computer had been a marvel of information, an actual artificial intelligence that had been active for way to long without having it's memory purged and defragmented. It's old programs had been slowly altering over time, corrupted and changed every time they were used to make an android or anything else. She still had a link set up to it on her main computer that was downloading all it's files into one of her hard drives, there was tons of information there and it was all hers. The Explorers Society had agreed to let her have access the whole island after she discovered it, everything there belonged to her now and she had barely scratched it's surface of everything she had found so far.   
  
Beep...beep...beep  
  
Before she closed the chest plate and repaired the damaged skin, she attached an umbilical cord and booted up her diagnostic program. The android's memory set up was an incredible set of super advanced dime sized hard drives that could hold a thousand times more info than her current set up and there were hundreds of the little things in it's brain case working together like a normal brain would. Whoever had designed this had been a genius, it was so simple to see how everything worked when activated. Each of the tiny hard drives communicated with each other and processed information like the human brain did and could easily access any of the information in an instant with no lag time or anything. Recreating it would take her several weeks though, even for one tiny little hard drive, but once that was accomplished she would be able to update all of her Bots.   
  
This technology, combined with her own inventions would make her a fortune in robotics designs. There was so much she had to learn, but once she was done with this android she would be able to duplicate it with ease. It had even had weapons built into it's main chassis, in the forearms, shins, shoulders, and breasts. Lasers weapons of amazing destructive capability that she had removed and deactivated for later study, Brianna would be able to do more with them than she would though. The most amazing thing she had found was that 98 percent of the android was made from some very rare materials, but ones that would allow it to react in a more human manner. It's bones could be broken, but would 'fix' themselves within minutes, it could lift ten tons of weight with little problem though she still wasn't sure what it's upper limits where. It's skin was incredibly life like, warm to the touch and just as stretchable as normal human skin.   
  
Every time she took a new look at this thing she found something else she hadn't noticed before. Luckily her link to the main AI on the island was providing a ton of answers and had allowed her access to it's programming, with that reprogramming the android would be simple. Both had been designed for easy use and understanding, this was both good and bad, on one hand it meant that she would soon have the Android working perfectly. On the other hand it meant that just anybody with a limited intelligence could access that island computer and she was worried about who had been using it before she came along. Were there androids out there that lived among humans and pretended to blend in for some reason? If so what were they programmed to do in certain situations?  
  
"...nga! Yea..."  
  
This more than anything else had her worried, she would need to return to the island and search the whole thing from top to bottom to get the answers she needed. That one little AI she found hadn't had access to the information she wanted, just stuff on androids and robotics, as far as she could figure she had stumbled into the manufacturing plant for the things. She sighed and rubbed her eyes as she tapped a few more keys on the computer and let it finish it's diagnostic on the android. At the moment she couldn't let herself think of it as a copy of Ranma's female form, she needed to make sure it was safe first. After she had it reprogrammed with the right attitude then she could treat it like her regular Bots, but until then it would continue to be the android.  
  
"...ung..."  
  
The computer finally beeped at her and she tapped in the last code string and sat back to watch as it performed a core dump of the android's memory. It would take about four hours to complete, a lot longer than expected, but she knew just how much memory was in this thing's hard drives. Even after downloading it she would need to learn the code, read through the whole mess, and rewrite everything. Ah, she loved robotics, there was so much potential to create the most amazing wonders. She yawned, it would take all night if she took her time, but it would be worth it in the end. Taking off her glasses she stood up and wandered over to her replicater and got herself a glass of ice water. That was when she heard the strange noise and wandered around the room trying to figure out where the odd music was coming from. Eventually she found herself standing in front of the main door to the lab, it sealed into the wall when she locked it to keep her sisters out during delicate operations. She glanced at the clock and noticed for the first time that it was about two in the morning and that everyone was in bed, she had worked right through dinner, again.  
  
"...one, two, three..."  
  
Right now she wanted to know what was going on out in the hall, it was starting to get on her nerves, so she tapped the open code and the door opened up silently. What greeted her was something she hadn't expected, but knowing her sister as well as she did, it didn't surprise her either. There where about forty Peebo moving up and down the long hallway performing a conga line, they all had on little Atlanta Braves hats and were waving little banners around that sait they had won. Singing to themselves as they moved back and forth in one long wiggling mass of little robots, even Peebochu had gotten into the act. She blinked as they all turned to look at her sheepishly then got back to dancing happily. Turning around Gina stepped back into her lab and shut the door and locked it just to be safe. Now if she could figure out why they were doing that at two in the morning she would be happy, as it was she was constantly wondering about the kind of programs her sister was using to control those things.   
  
"....Conga! Uh...Uh...Ah! Uh...Uh...Ah!"  
  
"Oh great, they just got louder. I do not need this tonight." She had more important things to worry about.  
  
"...One more time Peebos, everybody CONGA!"  
  
"One of these days Brianna." Gina mumbled to herself as she headed over to the alternate entrance to her lab and headed through the underground garage and up a level to enter the kitchen. She needed some aspirin after seeing that, those things seemed to get weirder and weirder as time went on. At times she even wondered if Brianna was just letting them run loose like pets or something, they were the size of a small remote controlled car and full of high explosives strong enough to knock down walls and if they blew up in groups they could level entire buildings.  
  
"Uh...Uh...Ah! Uh...Uh...Ah! Oh Yeah, feel the burn!"  
  
**********  
  
Three days and he still couldn't seem to figure out what he was doing wrong, Ranma was starting to get frustrated. He could pick up a martial arts technique after only seeing it one or two times and even invent a counter or improvement that same day, but he couldn't get seem to figure out this magic crap. Picturing the pattern in his mind was easy, gathering the magic for the spell and making it fit the pattern was easy, but for some danmed reason he just couldn't seem to cast a spell at low power. Casting a cantrip spell was like setting off a large scale blast of wind that could toss cars around. The one time he had tried a simple candle lighting spell he'd cast a giant fire ball that gone right through his bedroom wall, melted most of the backyard fence and earned himself a lecture from Gina, Julia, Dr. Diggers, and the neighbors who had almost been caught in the blast as well.   
  
Now he was in a special room the Dr. Diggers had made out of magic, he called it a spell casting room. It allowed spells to be tested and perfected, even really destructive ones, while inside without destroying everything in the immediate area. Ranma had been in here for close to six hours now and had only cast one spell so far and that one had been just as bad as the other three he'd cast recently, way to powerful. That was also the weird thing, according to what he'd been told the pattern's he was using to focus the spell were not supposed to grow as strong as the spells he cast. They were designed to actually limit the amount of power a person could put into them, bleeding off the access energy while they were cast. Dr. Diggers was baffled by his ability to increase their power and even thought he might have been using the wrong pattern.   
  
That had meant an hour of drawing them out by hand on paper to show which one's he was using, when that had proven to be a bust he'd been told to go back to practicing. Ranma could feel that he was doing something wrong too, but he just couldn't place his finger one what. He was a martial artist, not a mage, so he had no idea what it might be. He just knew that it was something simple that he was spacing out. Even when Dr. Diggers was making him run through a spell step by step he was always thrown off when he tried to take a small portion of his magic and use it. Gathering in his magic again he did a quick cast of the candle spell again, maybe if he did it really fast it would work, but a large ball of fire fired out of his hand and soared down the 'target range' and exploded against the back wall.  
  
"It didn't accomplish anything, but it sure as hell made me feel better." Ranma muttered to himself.   
  
He needed a break from this, so he started to go through his Kata once again, starting at the beginning and slowly increasing his difficulty and speed. This was what he knew, he could perform them in his sleep and knew every in an out of the moves, their history, their advantages and disadvantages depending on the circumstances. They were so ingrained into his body that if he were to lose his memory he'd do them by instinct alone, rote perfect. He kept it up for close to an hour without really doing anything really straining, he needed to take his mind off his magic training and this was the only way. By the time he'd finished he had another idea, it was such a small thing, but if it worked he might finally be able to move onto some real spells.  
  
Centering himself he took a relaxed offensive stance and flared his magic aura for a second, holding all the magical energy he could. Then he relaxed and let it die down, the problem seemed to be in his aura and following Dr. Digger's suggestions didn't seem to be working so he needed to find a different way to do the same thing. He'd even made that very suggestion a few days ago, but Dr. Diggers had insisted that doing so wouldn't work, but Ranma was beginning to think his magic worked differently than Dr. Diggers' magic did. The magical aura seemed to flow like water at times and the more he concentrated the stronger it got, just like his battle aura did.   
  
His very training under his father and Master Julia might be why things weren't working, his mind was so used to doing these things one way that it made it harder to do another way. He formed the pattern for lighting the candle in his mind and drew in a tiny bit of his magical aura instead of filling himself as Dr. Diggers wanted. He flicked his wrist in the proper position and channeled the magic through the pattern, this time the small trickle of power surged through him and vanished. The candle lit up with a small flare that melted the wax half way down the wick and stayed lit.  
  
"HAH! TAKE THAT YOU ****ING CANDLE!!" Ranma crowed and did a happy dance.  
  
Eventually he stopped dancing and got serious again, focusing on the gust cantrip that he'd started out with he followed the same steps, aimed, and channeled a tiny bit of magic at the candle. There was a whooshing sound and the candle blew out and fell over, but other than that there was on hurricane force winds to dodge. He grinned happily and did another dance, now all he had to do was perfect the new technique and master it in all it's forms. Getting this far was over half the battle and improving on it would be child's play now that he knew what he was doing wrong.   
  
"Very good Ranma." Dr. Diggers said as he walked in the room.  
  
"I did it! Whooho!" Ranma crowed and danced some more.  
  
"How did you do it? That didn't feel like a normal kind of spell I would use or anyone else I know of."  
  
"I had to find a different way to cast the spell from the one you showed me and I remembered a conversation we had a few days ago when I first cast that gust spell and tossed that swing set into the neighbor's pool."  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"My magic works differently than yours, I have to draw in the exact amount I need and cast however much energy is in my body to make the spell work, this way will mean a lot of trial and error practice, but your way just makes me increase the power of the spell way to much. Either making it way to dangerous to use or ineffective."  
  
"I've never heard of a magic discipline that worked like that, all of them use one variation or another of the type I described to you." Theo said with a little confusion, he would have to go back to Bugee and see if he knew what kind of magic Ranma was using. He was just one contradiction after another with the potential to be the best at just about anything he set his mind to. That was almost scary.  
  
"I have no clue why your way doesn't work either, it might have something to do with the way I was trained to access my Ki aura. I do know that I'm puting a bit of my Ki into the spells I'm casting though, it makes them just a tiny bit stronger than they normally would be. I'll have to practice some more to learn if that is a good or bad thing."  
  
"Excellent work Ranma, I was starting to wonder if you would be able to figure out a way to cast these lower level spells. I wouldn't have started out on the higher range spells and canceled your training if you couldn't work at these lower levels, they are a very necessary level to begin at. Now that you have I can show you some other things and get to teaching you full time, I'll even have Seance help you out."  
  
"Cool." Ranma said with a nod.  
  
"Now that I think about it I think that you might have been giving off some unconsious clues that your magic worked a little differently as well and I was just missing them." Dr. Diggers said as he rubbed his chin.  
  
"What do you mean?"   
  
"Remember how every time me or one of the others would look at your aura and it was always something different?"  
  
"Sure, it was driving you nuts." Smirked Ranma.  
  
Dr. Diggers ignored the insult. "Yep, I want you to cast that candle lighting spell again, but this time I want to cast that aura reading spell first to see what your aura does when you cast the spell."  
  
Ranma shrugged as he walked over to put the candle out and cast the spell again.. "Sure, tell me when your ready."  
  
"Alright, it's cast, go ahead and cast it, but wait a few seconds before you cast so I can get a good look at your aura."  
  
Nodding, Ranma formed the pattern in his mind and drew in a tiny amount of magic, less than before and held the spell. "It's ready."  
  
"Your aura changes as you prepared the spell Ranma, it started out as a light blue aura, but as you prepared the spell your aura wavered and turned to a firey red color. I can barely see it, but I think it's because you have such a tiny amount of magic in your body."  
  
"Anything else?" Ranma asked, he was getting tired of holding the spell at bay.  
  
"Go ahead and cast, but I want you to prepare to cast it again almost immediately."  
  
With a puff of smoke the candle lit up with ease and Dr. Diggers saw that his aura drained out of his body, leaving the blue one in it's place. Then that again vanished as Ranma prepared to cast it one more time and stopped at the same spot and turned to give him a questioning look. "Now what?"  
  
"Think about altering the spell to the small breeze spell and put the candle out without releasing the magic you have gathered."  
  
Raising an eyebrow, Ranma shrugged and altered the pattern in his mind and refocused the magic to fit this pattern. He saw Dr. Diggers nodding out of the corner of his eye and wondered what he was seeing. After several second he got tired of waiting and released the spell, putting the candle out with a wave of his hand. "How was that?"  
  
"Very informative. Well done Ranma that was a very good indeed." Holding up his hand Dr. Diggers cast a quick spell and a leather bound book appeared in his hand. He handed it to Ranma with a grin. "You're ready to move on, this is your first spell book."  
  
"So what did you just see with my aura?"  
  
"When you changed spells your aura changed the magic in your body to the kind it needed for the spell, altering the aura's color from fiery red to a white color."  
  
Taking the book Ranma was amazed to be holding such a thing, it was about the size of a large text book, bound brown leather that had been worked by a master of the art. There was a small yin/yang symbol on the cover right next to a cover lock with a hinged piece to lock it in place. "Whoa!"  
  
Dr. Diggers grinned. "That is a first level spell book, it was designed by the council to help evaluate all beginners in the art. It is yours to keep as the first book in the library of books you might eventually acquire over the years. There are about fifteen spells in in there and lots of information on each of them, who created them, some of their histories and such. I want you to memorize ever line in that book and master each of the spells."  
  
"Sure, no problem." Ranma said, it was like martial arts scrolls that the old man had used to 'borrow'. Fifteen spells was a lot, but so long as he had something to refer to he could do it easily, they were described and detailed with all the information he needed. "How long do I have?"  
  
"There is no time limit on this Ranma, when you get everything in there memorized you will considered a novice Mage, those are the basics. After you finish doing this you can stop learning because you will finally have the skill to control that magical aura of yours, or you will need to pick a school of magic and find someone to teach you more."  
  
"You won't be doing that?" Ranma asked with some surprise.  
  
"Only if you choose to specialize in Aura magic. You could be a Mystic mage, or a rune mage, or even a illusionist if you wanted. Anything that might catch your attention, as you learn more you will grow in power and skill, just like your martial arts. First we need to figure out what kind of magic you are using first."  
  
Ranma nodded again. "Cool, and you'll be helping me learn these spells?"  
  
"Yes, each one will take you a few days to a week to learn, even with everything described so I'll be around to push you in the right direction."  
  
"Alright, now all I need is one more thing."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Food, I'm starving." Ranma said as his stomach growled at him and demanded sustenance, NOW.  
  
Dr. Diggers sweatdropped. "Um...okay. When you get back I have something else I want to try."  
  
"Sure, no problem." Ranma yelled as he ran out of the room.  
  
**********  
  
She sat up and moved to get off the metal bed she was laying on, and several things registered at the same time as she took in her surroundings. She had been repaired, she was naked, the room was cold and causing certain reactions on her body she didn't understand, and that there was blonde haired girl with glasses dancing around the room trying to pat herself on the back shouting something about how she had done it and that she was 'such' a genius. Memory nodes sparked and she recalled a recent fight with some kind of cat girl and the amount of damage she had taken. The blonde stopped running and sauntered up to smirk at her, giving her a once over as she approached.  
  
"How do you feel? Your programming and internal systems should be working quite well now that I've rebuilt you." Gina said.  
  
"My systems seem to be working fine, my mass has changed since I was last on line, my personality programs are currently off line, strength settings have been downgraded to a lower setting. My artificial skin has been repaired to 96% of norm and will be back to normal within the hour. All other systems are functioning normally and within parameters, though someone has reprogrammed major parts of my programming. Emergency programs have been removed and replaced with a different set of commands."   
  
"I repaired you and started reprogramming you with proper orders, when your personality programs are activated you will be working like a normal girl. You had old orders to kill everything that crossed your path and I had to remove those and give you some upgrades. You will notice on an internal scan that I used the proper codes from the factory and that everything has been given authorization." Gina said.  
  
"Running scan...running scan...scan complete. Program changes have been accepted."  
  
"Excellent, now I would like you to remove your interface cable and plug into this computer right here." Gina said and motioned to the system that took up one whole wall of th lab she was using.  
  
The Android walked across the room and found the slot for her cable, she reached up under her hair and pulled the thin cord out of it's slot and plugged in. Instantly she found that her vision shifting from her optic sensors to computer itself. "Hook up complete."  
  
"Now look over the menu, there should be four names there."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I want you to run through each of those files, the name is the name you decide on will be the one you go by after we activate your personality programs. Those files you are looking at are the final stage you need before your programming can be completed."  
  
"Why four names?"  
  
"To give you a choice, normally this wouldn't be needed, but I thought it would be a good idea in this case just to give you a good idea of what kind of life you will have around here after you choose."  
  
"I am an android."  
  
"When you are done you will be a free android, able to make your own decisions and live your life as you see fit. You will no longer have a master to make all the choices for you."  
  
"Current programmed memories have me as a duplicate of one Ranma Saotome, female, a powerful fighter, and in need of a proper education." The Android said.  
  
"Access your new files on Ranma Saotome."  
  
The android cocked her head to the side and accessed the files. "Ranma is a man that changes into a girl with a splash of cold water?"  
  
"Yes, it's a curse and the form you are modeled off of."  
  
"What will his reaction be to me?"  
  
"I don't know, but he does know that I planned to fix you up so he knows you will be around."  
  
"Understood, choosing profile now..." The Android said and started looking over the histories of each name and the memories of each, a section of her mind activated as she read each profile and added the information to her neural net for later use and shut down without her knowing about it.  
  
Gina stood back and watched for several seconds as the female Ranma android went through the various files. She had programmed it to be able to choose whatever it wanted, the fact that it had taken her four days to do it had been the biggest surprise though. She had the plans available, computerized schematics, and detailed instructions to work by and the thing had been so complicated that she had been forced to do it the old fashioned way. Complete and total reverse engineering of every part and chip, it had taken her and the main computer hours to work everything out enough for her to begin repairs. She did not like to wait, she had always forged on ahead and completed things far faster and better than everyone else around her. Even Penny had to take a couple of months to build those 'caster' guns of hers from there Beta technology experiments a few months back.  
  
It had been worth the extra time though, the android was working perfectly and installing a neural net into it's head had worked wonders on it's programming. Surprisingly enough there were still areas of its programming that she didn't understand, but that would give her something to do later on when she had bit more free time. For now it was in perfect working order and once it chose an identity she could set about getting the final stages of the job done. The android finished reading the files and unjacked from the system as it turned to look at Gina and smirked. It took a second to unjack from the computer and conceal it beneath her hair again. "Personality program activated."  
  
"Which one did you choose?" Gina asked. She could see that it was already adapting to the special programs that had been on hold since she first activated it, the hand and eye coordination was no longer robotic, she was unconsciously adjusting her balance, had picked up a couple of nervous habits already (a smirk and adjustment of her pigtail, not really liking the thing now that she could think for herself), and seemed to be more human than some people she knew in the Explorers Club.  
  
"You may call me Ranko Saotome, Ranma's sister and companion." Ranko said.  
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I AM SUCH A GENIUS!!" Gina cackled.  
  
**********  
  
"Excuse me, but would you know the way to Tokyo?" Ryoga asked a farmer who was standing by a fence?  
  
"Huh?" The old man said.  
  
"WOULD YOU KNOW THE WAY TO TOKYO FROM HERE?!" Ryoga yelled.  
  
"Eh?" The old man said and leaned a little closer.  
  
"Ryoga, are you sure you know the way to your house?" Ionis asked. He wasn't positive, but there was a distinct possibility that they weren't even in Japan right then. The Farmer kept trying to get them to say something and was muttering under his breath in German of all languages.   
  
"Of course I know where my own home is, it's in Tokyo." Ryoga yelled.  
  
"Then why are we in Germany?"  
  
Ryoga blinked.  
  
His face paled a little before turning a horrible shade of red as he grabbed his head and screamed.  
  
"RANMA SAOTOME, THIS ALL YOUR FAULT!!"  
  
It echoed across the small mountain they happened to be on.  
  
The old man hit him over the head with the shovel and knocked him out with a surprise shot to the head. "QUIET YOU YOUNG WHIPPERSNAPPER!!"  
  
"We'll be going now." Ionis said as he dragged Ryoga away, there was no way he would ever be able to lift him up and using his magic was out of the question way out here in the middle of nowhere. People out here tended shoot first and 'eat' the remains, everyone knew about these out of the way places.  
  
**********  
  
"One please." Ranma said as she stepped up to the booth.  
  
"Eight dollars." The teeny bopper ditz behind the glass said as she took his money, secure in the knowledge that she was safe from the rain while the poor girl in front of her was being soaked to the bone. She had to resist the urge to smirk.  
  
Pulling out her wallet Ranma handed over the damp money, got her ticket, and walked into the movie theater. Gina had suggested that he take a break from the constant practice and give her parents a bit of time to themselves. In fact Ranma would later found out that they had gone on a little trip to Jade to visit someone, but Gina forgot to tell him. It had been a hint, Ranma knew that, but she hadn't understood what she was hinting at. So she had shrugged and headed out of the house in her converted communist outfit, though at the time she hadn't known it was raining as bad as it was and gotten soaked the instant she opened the door to the house. Instant girl, she had not been pleased, but Gina just told her to go out and enjoy herself and not to do anything she wouldn't. Though that part about picking up a one night stand had been a bit confusing since, but she thought it might have something to do with that stuff that Brianna has been showing her lately and didn't even want to think of it at the moment.   
  
The wink and giggle had been a bit hard to understand, but she chalked it up to some of the weird stuff girls were known for and forgot about it. That was why she were here to see a movie, it wasn't the best way to spend her free time, but she figured that after spending all this time practicing she deserved a bit of that stuff that Master Julia had been talking about, time off, it was odd doing this, but nothing she couldn't handle. That was why she planned on spending most of the time watching the movie practicing some of her Ki technique exercises. She usually did them at home so this wouldn't be any different and might make it easier. She glanced around the theater as she entered and realized that this was the first American movie theater she had ever been in.   
  
Back when she had been training under the old man she had taken several opportunities to sneak into one through an upper story window to see a movie that had caught her interest, even the old man had tagged along every now and then. Though he would usually sneak off about halfway through the movie to go out and acquire them some more funds for the trip. This was the first time she had ever actually paid to get into a movie and she thought it was a lot easier to do than to sneak in through a back door or slip in with a group of people on the sly 'to test her stealth skills'. She took in the lobby with it's wide open space, the red rug, the gold rope barriers, and all the people standing around at the front stand to buy food and drinks for their movie. It didn't take long to find out that they didn't have any hot water to give away and she really wasn't' in the mood to buy any.   
  
Half an hour later Ranma wandered out of the theater, the movie wasn't finished yet, but she was bored and sitting around looking at bad actors just didn't seem to be the best way to waste time and relax a little. The rain was still coming down so she didn't want to go back out there for a while, but she did consider just going home to practice some more when she recalled that she had something she could do. She had just forgotten about it in the rush to master the Neko-Ken and lose that fear of cats she had been dealing with for years. Reaching into her subspace pocket she pulled out one of the books she had gotten from Shangri-la, it was actually a copy that she had made with some special machine's that Gina had loaned her for a few hours. Now she had copies of all the books she had been given, that way Dr. Diggers had been able to teleport the books back to the Library. Kahn had sent back a thank you note and a box of star shaped chocolates that everyone had eaten. Other than the one book on the Neko-Ken there had been four others that she had forgotten about with all the training Julia had been giving her.   
  
Picking out a bench against the wall she looked at the title on the book, The Kami Hami Ha detailed as Fact or Fiction, it seemed to be an entire book dedicated to just one style of martial arts. She had only flipped through it that one time when she had gotten it and hadn't touched it since. At first it seemed to be some kind of book telling the life of a some old geaser named Muten Roshi, but that soon changed and she delved into his world of super martial artists and techniques powerful enough to blast whole mountains into rubble. The techniques, if they could be learned would have taken him years to master, but Ranma didn't mind, it would be worth it.   
  
One of the first things the book suggested for any student was for them to put on some kind of weighted clothing. She thought about the super heavy back pack she had been carrying around with her on the training trip and realized that she was already over half way through that kind of training. It would have worked better if she had been able to learn to fight with that weight on her back all the time, but that was fixed easy enough. Then it went on to detail several fights that this old guy had gotten into and some of his students, all of them had been trained in some unorthodox ways that brought out the best in them as fighters and made them some of the best in the world. That was exactly what Ranma wanted the most, to be the best and prove to herself that her whole life hadn't been wasted.   
  
Her confidence was at an all time low right now, she had lost so many fights that she had begun to wonder if she should just give up fighting all together. But her training had also taught her that no matter how many times she went down in a fight, she should get right back up and keep going until she won totally. As the time passed slowly Ranma made her way through the book, learning about several different kinds of fighting arts that made up the Muten Roshi style of martial arts. Surprisingly enough she knew most of the styles that were used, but there were several other moves that she had never heard of before that needed to be learned before she could start adapting this kind of fighting into her Anything Goes style.  
  
Most of these unknown ones could be learned by following the old guys training, though it would take about three months or more. That was about all the time she had left her in America before she had to go home to Japan and her father. Maybe there was some way to find a way to stick around longer and see if Julia knew anything about the style. She was just finishing off the book and it's detailed explanation of the Kame Hame Ha when the movie finally let out and she was reminded that she had better get home now. One look outside was enough to let her know that it still hadn't stopped raining, but a little rain wouldn't hurt her so she got up and stretched. Putting the book away she pulled out her spell book and flipped through it until she found a spell that she had found just that morning and memorized the pattern. It was a simple enough spell that could be cast without everyone around her freaking out over some weird light show.   
  
She flicked her wrist and let the energy go just as she stepped outside and grinned as the rain seemed to flow around her body. It was a shield spell that could be used to keep any kind of airborne irritant away from her body, bugs, rain, poison gas, even radiation. The last one was rarely needed, but it had been needed before and that was why it was listed in the first place. At it's current strength it should last about half an hour and that was more than enough time to get home. Even if it wasn't she could just cast it again so she took her time as she walked along thinking about the contents of that book. Her aura could have done the same thing, but it would have been noticeable to everybody around her and Master Julia had suggested that she keep the special effects down to a minimum.  
  
She rounded a corner and found that she had taken a wrong turn during her walk and headed downtown instead of uptown to the Digger's place. There were two reasons to notice this, the first was the dozen or so skyscrapers that were rising up around her like giant spikes piercing the sky. The second was the small pitched battle going on about a block away between two people she had never seen before and hanging around with the Diggers tended to make one think they had seen it all.   
  
On one side of the battle was what looked like a dog like creature wearing armor and smoking a cigar as he fired blasts of green energy out of his hands (paws?) at his opponent. The other one was a girl, she was wearing glittering mech like armor like Brianna liked to use and had a lot of blond hair swirling around behind her as she dodged and attacked in a frenzy of movement. Her armor was kind of like a metal bikini with devices that flowed from this back pack she was wearing that reached to her metal gloves and boots. The boots seemed to have these little thrusters in the ankles that seemed to allow her to fly and hover. She was armed to the teeth too, firing little mini missiles out of her forearm mounted launcher at a rapid pace that the dog thing, that was standing like it was a normal human and moved around on two legs, dodged by running at a high rate of speed.  
  
They were tearing up the whole street and blowing out the bottom floors of the buildings around them. Ranma stepped into the shadows to watched the fight a little, she wasn't to sure who the good guy was and wanted to make sure she didn't attack the wrong fighter. Over the years she had stumbled across several fights with super powered beings and high class martial artists. She had only made the mistake of jumping into a fight without knowing some of the story on one occasion, the one where she had chosen the wrong side and been stabbed in the back for her trouble. Literally. Her father had been so disappointed in her when he broke her out of the hospital a few days later and run her ragged to make up for the mistake and taught her several things about what she should have done. Namely picked her side and let them worry about killing each other, she could always move in when it was over to determine things and loot the body.   
  
Her father's advice was never quite up there with terms like honorable and decent and manly. It was always do as he said and not as he does, still some of his tricks worked really well in certain situations. This time she was going to use a bit of his advice and stay out of the fight, while she was dong this she would take a couple of seconds to use one of her newer techniques to 'read' both fighters auras. It was one of the lessons Dr. Diggers had taught her out of the book and one that allowed her to analyze the situation without getting involved. Closing her eyes she started to find her center and went into a trance to up her magic level enough to see their auras. When she opened them up and saw both fighters and instantly knew where her course of action lay, the girl in the armor had a bright blue aura and that meant that she was defending something. The dog-man seemed to have a black and orange aura that flared to pure black every time he fired a blast of energy, he was trying to kill the girl.  
  
She smirked as she slipped into the first level of the Neko-ken and started making her way to the fight by slipping from shadow to shadow as silently as a cat. The girl in the armor seemed to be winning as she kept the dog thing on the defensive, but his desperate shots were getting closer and closer to hitting her. Ranma smirked as she got within ten feet of the fight, neither of them seemed to know she was there. Then the dog got in a lucky hit by blasting the ground at the girl's feet as she was lunging forward to fire off another swarm of missiles. The dog ducked and ran forward before she could recover and slammed a couple of upper cuts into her stomach. His grin was almost evil as he blew smoke out of his mouth, but Ranma was able to see that the girl had some kind of force field around her protecting her bare skin. The blows had been strong enough to knock the wind out of her though and she collapsed to her knees and the dog raised his and placed it about a few inches from her head.  
  
"Good try bitch, but you will never stop me from getting my revenge." He said.  
  
Ranma ran forward just as his fist started to glow and build up enough power to blow through the shield. His other blasts hadn't been strong enough to get through but they would have hurt her if they hit. Submerged into the Neko-ken Ranma didn't think about this to much, she just ran in and slashed at this back with her claws. They slammed into his armor and seemed to have a bit of trouble slicing through, but they bit in deep enough to wound him. This was followed up by a savage kick to one of his knees and a throw that sent him flying across the street and into one of the smoldering buildings. Ranma's Ki senses were telling her that the thing wasn't even hurt all that much so she drew in quite a bit of magical power and formed a pattern in her mind just as it jumped out of the rubble.  
  
"FIREBALL!!" Ranma screamed the name of a new spell she had learned just the day before. Dr. Diggers had thought it odd that the candle lighting spell would be so strong so he had shown her the more powerful version of the spell that got used the most. The fireball spell, it was supposed to be a hundred times more powerful and the perfect long range weapon. In her hands there was certainly an increase in power, but with her odd way of casting magic she could reach unheard of levels of power. Dr. Diggers had been amazed when she cast a fireball on the third try that almost overloaded his special room and been forced to cast a quick Dispell Magic spell to dampen out the insane level of magic and ordered her to never use that much power again.  
  
Her hand lit up as a blast of fire seemed to fly out of the palm of her hand. The dog thing took it right in the chest and screamed in surprise as his forward motion was halted and reversed for a second before the fire ball exploded with a massive concussion of force that nearly blew Ranma off her feet. Windows all over the block shattered it was so loud, she took a few seconds to recover from adding to much magical power to the fireball spell. There was a large bonfire burning about ten feet in front of her, the flames were almost blue with heat and Ranma could see a nearby plastic sign melting from where it was hanging on the side of a building. She turned back to the girl to see if she was alright and found her standing there gaping at her in shock.  
  
"Are you alright?" Ranma asked.  
  
"How...how...did...y-you do that?" She asked.  
  
"Sorry about that, I added to much power to the fireball spell. I didn't have time to be careful, he was about to kill you."  
  
"Oh that, thanks for saving me. My name is Asrial."  
  
"Hello Asrial, I'm Ranma Saotome."  
  
"You said that was a fireball spell?"  
  
"Yep." Ranma nodded.  
  
"So you're a magic user? I've never seen a magic user cast a fireball spell that powerful before."  
  
"More of a novice, I'm actually a Martial Artist, but I've recently started to study a bit of magic."  
  
"Well Ranma you bought me some time, but Dog Supreme can't be beaten that easily and he should be recovering any minute now. If those flames weren't so hot I would fire my missiles in there to delay him some more, but they won't be able to even do that if they blow up before they reach his body." Asrial said with a frown.  
  
"You're trying to kill him?" Ranma asked in surprise.  
  
"He's been trying to kill me and my friends for the last few hours. We were just hanging around like we usually do when he came out of nowhere and started attacking us. What was surprising was that his Cosmic Supreme power seemed to be a lot more powerful than it was when we first defeated him a few years ago."  
  
"You and your friends? Where are they right now?"  
  
"Calling on some of our other friends to help fight this guy, I was just distracting him while they did this, but they are really late for some reason. It's been over an hour and they still haven't returned. It doesn't help that dog boy over here took our fight to the sky and we ended up here." Asrial muttered.  
  
"Where are you from, I can take you back there and help you guys out." Ranma said.  
  
"Well..." Asrial blushed. "That's kind of the problem now that my GPS is working again." She sweatdropped.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Um...I don't seem to be in Quagmire anymore."  
  
"Quagmire? I've never heard of it, this is Atlanta, Georgia."  
  
Asrial blinked, looked confused, and finally nodded as she examined her arm mounted computer. "I seem to recall when the fight got out of hand we had taken to the air, we were going at it so hard that I didn't pay attention to where we were. I guess we must have gone up really high and been moving at some pretty good speeds to make it all the way here in just under an hour."  
  
"Whoa!" Ranma muttered as she thought about just how far that was, she had never been out of Atlanta except for those two trips, one to China and the other to that island.   
  
"Well it looks like the fire is dying down, lets see how dog boy is doing, maybe we got lucky and put him down after all, that fire was pretty hot."  
  
They sighed as they saw the dog walking out of the fire with barely any damage, though his fur was smoldering and he was patting out small fires that had started on his clothing as he moved and glared at them for a second before smiling. "That was a pretty good shot red, but I'm Dog Supreme and I can survive the core of a star, that little blast barely even hurt me and that was because I wasn't prepared for it. You wont get me a second time." He said with a toothy grin.  
  
"You've caused enough trouble Dog Supreme, just go away and leave us alone." Asrial yelled and aimed her forearm again, readying another missile barrage.  
  
"You and your little group nearly killed me when I was tossed out into space last time, I will have my revenge on your whole group for that, but since Leeanna liked you best it's only fitting that I kill you before I take out the others. I was one of her most loyal servants before her and the rest of her people abandoned me without a second thought." Dog Supreme said as he crouched and sneered at them, blue energy started to swirl around his armored hands as they flexed slowly. Surprisingly even his cigar had survived the fire and he puffed out a couple puffs of smoke as he grinned.  
  
"If you think for one second that you can stop us Rover, think again, there isn't a thing you can do to us now that I'm here." Ranma said arrogantly, she was still in the first stages of her Neko-Ken and knew that there wasn't at thing this dog boy could do to hit her.  
  
"Arghaa!!" Dog Supreme snarled and screamed as he threw his hand forward to blast a hole through Ranma's chest.  
  
With a smirk Ranma dodged it with ease, just bending out of the way and not even bothering to move from where she was standing. The bolt of energy blasted a hole through the wall behind them and set off a small explosion. "Oh come on Fluffy, you can do better than that!" Ranma taunted as she reached out and ruffled the hair on top of his head.  
  
Dog Supreme froze in shock.  
  
"He's like a big ol pussy cat, totally harmless." She said sweetly.  
  
Asrial backed away a little as an aura formed around the dog boy and his eyes took on a murderous glint and focused on Ranma. She didn't even seem to notice as she blinked back at him like a ditz, Asrial wondered what was up with Ranma, did she have a suicidal death wish or something? "Um...Ranma..." She tried.  
  
"Well, what are you going to try now Spot?" Ranma asked and laughed as Dog Supreme started firing off large blasts of energy from his hands, but she dodged them all and moved in time and again to tap him in some strange way.  
  
"Hold still you hairless monkey, I'm going to charbroil you in your own juices!" Dog Supreme screamed.  
  
Ranma just led him in a circle and watched the surroundings out of the corner of her eye, when she got him in just the right spot she crouched down and hisssed at him. He stopped in shock for a second as she reminded him of a territorial cat for a second, but that was all Ranma needed as her hands shot forward, and aura forming around her, and claws appeared at the tips of her fingers to ripped through his armor. With a well placed kick she booted him into the sky and sent him flying out of the area before turning back to Asrial. "Quick we need to make sure he leaves the area, he was causing enough damage as it was, this way we can control where we fight him."  
  
"Where did you send him?" Asrial asked as they ran after him.  
  
"There was a small park near here, there will be enough room for us to let loose without having to worry about the buildings falling on us." Ranma said.  
  
"You THINK?"   
  
"Um...heheh...I don't know the area very well, but I recall passing it on my down to see a movie a few blocks from here."  
  
"Let's hope you are right."  
  
"No problem, I'm the best fighter you will ever meet. I can take him down easily." Ranma said, then tripped over her own feet and plowed face first into the side walk and groaned.  
  
Asrial smirked, this girl was starting to remind her of someone she knew. "Oh right, your the best of the best."  
  
"Hey, that was a fluke, it won't happen again." Ranma muttered as she blushed and crawled to her feet and took off after dog boy.  
  
**********  
  
High above them a Peebo-TIE followed along silently recording the whole thing as Brianna watched from her room. When Ranma hadn't shown up for their nightly game she had sent it out to see what was going on and been surprised to see Asrial hanging around Ranma and that little dog creature was reminding her a little to much of Peachbody and his pet human. Brianna wondered for a second if she should help them out and decided that fighting that thing would be a lot of fun and letting Ranma take all the credit was out of the question. They were competing with each other after all. She stood up, stripped off the revealing little silk dress she was wearing and walked over to her closet wearing only a pair of skimpy panties she'd borrowed from Britanny.  
  
Grabbing one of her 'flight' suits, a skin tight body armor that looked like something the Knight Sabers would wear as they were putting on their armor. She dressed quickly, walked over to her computer and tapped in a password and watched as a one person elevator rose up from the floor in the corner of the room. Once in position inside the small device she pressed a button and it lowered into the floor and took her down to her Mecha lab where she built her armor and other lovely toys like the Lazy-Boy-O-Doom. Her eyes sparkled as she stepped off the elevator and moved over to one of several display racks. She had armor designed for just about everything and weapons that most governments would pay millions for if she ever decided to sell them, but they were all hers to play with and no one else could touch them.  
  
She could go with the powered flight armor where she had mounted a couple of rail guns to the forearms and missiles launched from the hip ports. Or the one flying power house with the multiple target laser casters, guaranteed to hit every object within in a hundred feet and perfect for crowd control when the stun setting was used. Then she spotted one of er earlier models from when she had fought those monsters at the Dragon Pharaoh's tower, it was a jack of all trades battle armor and came with dozens of options. She moved on to one of the others and decided right then and there that it was perfect, it only took her a few seconds to use the Light Gate technology she had in her lab to get it on and ready for battle.  
  
Ding! Went a little tone in her ear and her visor lit up with a little super deformed picture of Gina glaring at her. "Brianna, you were told..."  
  
"Sorry Gina, but Ranma's in a fight a few blocks from here and I was going to help him."  
  
"He's in a fight? With who?"  
  
"I'm not sure, some kind of dog boy that walks around like a normal human. He seems to have some kind of magic power and fires blasts of energy from his gloves. He's also being helped by Asrial, I was surprised to see here there so I think she might be the reason for the fight. I thought that she might be coming to us for help with this character, she's got one of her battle suits on to, though this one a bit different than the one she used to wear."  
  
"Jinkies, my computers are registering a high level of energy a couple of blocks from here. Do you have one of those Peebo-Tie's watching the fight? I want to see what's making all this energy, its like a little sun, it's just sitting there like it's waiting for something."  
  
"Yep, I want pictures." Brianna said with a smirk. "Ranma is a hunk after all."  
  
"Give me the frequency so I can watch this too."  
  
Brianna rattled off the number and saw Gina nod as she watched. "They are running right now and where is this dog thing?"  
  
"Ranma just booted him in this direction, that's probably him that the computes are picking up."  
  
"Right, ah there they are at the entrance to the park. They don't seem to see your Peebo-TIE, how far away is it?" Gina asked.  
  
"About fifty feet or so, you know how silent they are when they fly. Those mini-antigraves are amazing thing."  
  
"The armors charged up now and I just installed a flight pack, I'm out of here." Brianna said as she cut the link and moved over to a launching area. It lit up when she stepped on it and she pressed a control pad on the wall and the ceiling above her opened up to reveal a wide launch tube. The thrusters on her flight pack fired and she launched up the tube and into the sky in a trail of smoke. Changed directions and zeroed in on Ranma's location with a big grin plastered across her face. She could see a bunch of smoke rising in the distance and knew that those three were going at it pretty hard now that they didn't have to worry about building and such. The flight pack hit it's second stage and she raced off towards the park knowing that a hell of a fight was coming up and looking forward to kicking some ass and blowing some things up.  
  
**********  
  
They reached the park and Ranma could see where Dog Supreme had landed and was just crawling out of the hole he had created when he landed. Ranma was a bit surprised that he hadn't just landed on his feet, according to Asrial he could fly. He turned to growl at them as they ran up and formed a sphere of energy around himself, then smirked and flexed his muscles. Ranma skidded to a halt as her danger sense started to rise up at an alarming rate, a glance over at Asrial was enough to confirm that she was worried about this too. They moved to circle the dog boy, Ranma heading to the left and Asrial heading to the right to keep him occupied by attacking from two directions at once. She didn't want to admit it, but his this guy had survived being attacked by her Neko-Ken skills twice now and that was one of her most dangerous techniques besides magic.  
  
When it came to magic she had only managed to memorize three spells from that book so far and only one of them was a combat spell as Dr. Diggers called them and she had used it already. Ranma watched Asrial out of the corner of her eye, she was taking a little longer to get into position than expected. It was now or never so Ranma jumped forward with her Ki claws forming around her fingertips, in an instant she knew she had made a mistake as Dog Supreme's aura flared up to intercept her. It was like slamming into a solid wall, then he stepped forward and backhanded her hard enough to send her flying. Spun around, and did a jumping roll for Asrial's legs as she was moving to fire her arm mounted missile launcher. She had to abort the attack to dodge and that was what he wanted, grabbing her ankle, Dog Supreme flexed his muscles and slammed her into the ground like a club.  
  
"Aghaaa!!" Asrial screamed in shock.  
  
"You won't be screaming for long little girl." Dog Supreme snarled as he lifted her up to throw her again.   
  
Then Ranma was there attacking his back again, this time his aura wasn't flaring out to protect him. Instead of dragging her claws across his back, she knifed them into his back, right where his kidneys should have been. Asrial was dropped to the ground as he screamed in agony and stumbled forward clutching his back and cursing a mile a minute for making such a stupid mistake. Then Asrial brought her fist forward and fired a barrage of missiles into this stomach at almost point blank range and sent him flying back in a sphere of explosions and smoke. Ranma smirked as she ducked down and let him fly by, let him land, and pointed her hand at him and smirked.  
  
"FIREBALL!!"  
  
A large ball of fire exploded out of her palm and into the curled up excuse that had been Dog Supreme. It was just about to hit when he stirred and started to sit up and took him right in the chest with a massive explosion. Ranma grinned, this was one tough sucker. She wondered how Daishi's new form would have handled her new abilities, he might have been fireproof with that stone skin trick, but there was no way he could have just shrugged off all this damage. This guy was a different kind of fighter all together and she had a feeling she could take him down eventually. She caught a bit of movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to look up beside her and saw Brianna firing some kind of rocket pack to come in for a landing beside Asrial.  
  
"Ranma! I came to help." Brianna said, then smirked as she realized that Ranma was in his female form. "How's things going?"  
  
"Pretty good, he takes a good hit and keeps getting back up." Ranma said and cracked her knuckles. "He's the perfect sparing partner."  
  
"Asrial, It's been a while...that's a new look for you." Brianna said as she looked over the metal bikini and wondered how she would look in something like that.  
  
"It's a new design that I had drawn up."   
  
"Did it work?" Brianna asked with a smirk, she knew exactly why Asrial would wear something like that.  
  
Asrial pouted and shook her head. "No, the stupid jerk didn't even stick around to see it. He was to busy helping out that mad scientist at the school, the one that's obsessed with steam and wasn't even around when this fight started."  
  
Giggling, Brianna smiled and winked at Ranma. "I kind of know what your going through, I found a guy that it totally oblivious to hints too."  
  
"Huh?" Ranma muttered.  
  
"I take it you succeeded though?" Asrial asked.  
  
"Oh yeah, I just had to get on his good side. It took a video game of all things, typical man, more interested in a machine than in a girl throwing herself at him." Brianna muttered and rolled her eyes.  
  
"Hey you two, quit gossiping, he's getting up for some more just like I thought he would." Ranma said, she concentrated on forming her aura around her body. She had a feeling that she would need a little extra help with this so she was upping her fighting abilities, the Neko-Ken was working, but not as well as she would have liked. His armor kept blocking the blows that would have finished him off, she was going to have to find a different way to stop this guy. On a high note, at least she was kicking the crap out of him. It was better than some of the other fights she had been in lately.  
  
"Christ, what the hell is this thing?" Brianna asked as she tapped button on her for arm, there was a flash of light and a large gun appeared in her hand and started to whine as she thumbed off the safety and grinned evilly.  
  
"His name is Dog Supreme and he has access to a Cosmic Supreme power, it makes him nearly unstoppable, he used to be a servant of Leeanna when we were fighting." Asrial said. "I think you guys met him a few years ago when you were exploring that ancient city in Egypt, you mentioned something about robots."  
  
"Oh yeah, I remember this guy now. We left him lodged in a giant block of ice after he tried to take over the world a few years ago." Brianna said. "He was a pain, but that was because he was building hundreds of super powered robots that looked like himself. Gina adapted some of the technology into her own robots at the time to give them more mobility, I borrowed the weapon systems for my own work."  
  
"Really? Do you think you can take him out like you did last time?"  
  
Brianna was about to respond when Dog Supreme staggered out of the burning crater that had just been created around him in Ranma's blast, he glared at Ranma and snarled. "You Bitch! I will kill you slowly and painfully for this!"  
  
"Let's just see you try, dog boy." Ranma snapped. "Your considerably weaker than you were a few minutes ago Lassie, there is no way I'm going to let something as WEAK as you defeat me that easily."   
  
He growled, clutched his head as if he was in pain and screamed in fury, it sounded more like a howl than a scream. Ranma decided to take advantage of Dog Blunders mistake and motioned for all of them to attack, Asrial and Brianna nodded and they moved to attack him from three different directions at once. Ranma used her Ki to move in almost faster than he could move and clocked him across the chin with a powerful punch that sent him reeling. But not before his arm came up to block a kick from Asrial with his hand and he took a second blow to his head from Brianna's foot, it was a hard one too, powered by the increased power that came with her armor. His head snapped around the other direction and sent him back several feet where he collapsed to the ground groaning in pain. His powers had just taken a serious hit and he was running out fast, he had to take these girls out as fast as he could and stop playing with them.   
  
He rolled right to his feet and glared at the girls that had just kicked the crap out of him, there was no way he was going to let them get away with this. Now he was going to kill them all and there was nothing that would stop him. Letting out a scream of rage, and nearly foaming at the mouth, Dog Supreme's aura exploded outward with explosive might that sent the girls flying back several yards where they crashed into the ground. Ranma landed hard, but instinctively rolled to her feet just as the dog was upon her, moving faster than he had in any of their earlier encounters. She took a fist to the stomach, a knee to the chin, and a spinning kick that launched her into the air and she was almost positive that she felt something insider her break when he hit her.   
  
Asrial and Brianna yelled in shock and let loose on Dog Supreme with their weapons, sending mini-missles and laser fire into the evil character, but his armor just absorbs the laser fire and the mini-missles have little effect on him when he is prepared for them. His aura flares and he vanishes in the blink of an eye, only to reappear under Asrial with his elbow planted in her stomach and blows the air out of her lungs, sending her flying back and into a tree. She clenches her teeth in pain as she slides down to the ground and struggles to get her breath back and continue the fight. Brianna, who is nearly plowed over by Asrial, barely manages to dodge the flying blonde and leaves herself open to an attack that hits her in the lower back and shatters her flight pack into hundreds of little shards and sends her staggering forward to land on top of Ranma's prone form had landed in a heap.  
  
Brianna groans and shakes her head as she tries to stand up, gut a kick to her stomach sends her rolling across the grass as Dog Supreme laughs at them. Instead of following her he bends down to pick up the stunned Ranma by her hair, though considering Dog Supreme's size her legs were still on the ground, his hands begin to glow and Brianna realizes that he plans to blow her head off. Brianna struggles to stand as she activates her back up plan, she had really underestimated this guy, but was glad she had learned to anticipate things like this. A group of Peebo-TIE's screech out of the night sky firing dozens of laser bolts, it's not enough to take him down, but work as a distraction as she rolls over and taps her forearm and a gun appears in her hand with a flash of light. The gun is made out of silver metal, about two feet long, and has a four inch wide barrel, it starts to glow ominously.  
  
"Oh shit." Dog Supreme mutters just as she pulls the trigger.  
  
The blast takes him in the side and sends him staggering backwards, he is just starting to shrug off the blast when he backs into something. He looks up into the blue eyes of another Ranma and gasps, his eyes roll over to look at the other red head laid out on the ground nearby just as the one behind him picks him up by his armor and tosses him over her shoulder. With a yelp Dog Supreme flies over a hundred feet before he manages to gain control the fall and land on his feet and use what little power he has left to keep from breaking anything. He stands there gasping for air and glares at the newest enemy as he negligently raises a hand and blows away Brianna's flying Peebos as they come in for another attack. They rain down around him in charred chunks of metal and plastic, completely unrecognizable for what they had been just seconds before.  
  
"You...you...you..." He growls out in fury.  
  
The other girls are starting to get to their feet, even Ranma who is holding her ribs, when they see the second Ranma standing there watching Dog Supreme carefully. She is his exact duplicate, right down to how she wears her clothing. The only difference is that she is wearing her hair loose instead of in that pigtail that Ranma always uses. She stalks forward without saying a word slowly gaining speed as she breaks into a run, jumps into the air to do a flying kick right into Dog Supreme's head. He tries to dodge, but the kick was a faint for the grass she just threw in his face and allows her enough time to get in a solid punch. Because of his weakened power level and the amount of time he had been fighting these girls he takes a blow to the back of his head that stuns him. The others are there in an instant and begin to pound the crap out of dog boy, stomping on him to make sure he stays down this time.  
  
Ten minutes later they all return to the Diggers place with Dog Supreme beat to a bloody pulp and trussed up tighter than a convict in the bent remains of his own armor. They are carrying him on their shoulders like a prize of some sort as they enter the house, even the android is joining in, though Ranma is giving her a weird look out of the corner of her eye. Dog boy is dumped on the floor just as Gina walks into the room, nods, and she places a collar around his neck before she looks up at everybody with a grin. "Whoa, you look like you were just in a war."  
  
"We were, that is one hard guy to beat." Asrial said as she tapped a button on her armor. It started to glow and vanished, leaving her in a pair of shorts and a tank top that left nothing to the imagination. Ranma, recently inducted into the female appreciation club, gulps and tries not to stare at her. "What was that you just put on him?"  
  
"An inhibitor, it should block his powers from working while its on him and it can't be taken off unless I hook him up to one of my computers and run a seventy four character code word through it's minicomputer." Gina said with a grin and adjusted her glasses.  
  
"What happens if he tries to force it off or break it?" Brianna asked. "Does it blow up and take his head with it in a gory blast of bone and brain matter?"  
  
"Eww!" Asrial gasped and almost gagged right there.  
  
Gina blinked. "Um...no, I wouldn't create something like that, unless of course this was for Peachbody. In this case it just tasers him unconscious."  
  
Brianna pouted, she liked the other idea better. "I never even thought of an inhibitor." Brianna muttered as she picked Peebochu off the floor and held it. The thing looked happier than it had been, but Ranma ignored it and chose to look at her double standing by the couch.  
  
She turned and smiled at Ranma and walked over. "Hi Ranma, I'm sorry for attacking you the other day. I had no choice about how I acted."  
  
"Um...that's alright, but are you really me?" Ranma asked, she was a little confused and wanted to get to the bottom of this.  
  
"I'm a perfect copy of your female form, I was supposed to kill you and take your place while I waited for the computer to send me my new orders. When Britanny defeated me I was taken out of the fight and this allowed Gina to rebuild me and install new programming and personality routines."  
  
Ranma blinked. "Huh?"  
  
"I'm all better now, do you want to be friends?" She asked. "Just call me Ranko, it's the name I've chosen for myself while I adjust to this new way of life I've been given."  
  
"Sure!" Ranma said and smiled. She was totally lost, but a new friend was better than losing one in her book. Now all she needed to do was find some hot water and her day would be just that much brighter.  
  
"Hey, Asrial? Do you know where he came from? The last we saw of this guy was when he was frozen inside this giant block of ice." Gina asked as she pointed a small device at Dog Supreme and took some kind of reading.  
  
"Sorry, but he just showed up out of nowhere."  
  
"What's weird is that he was supposed to have lost his powers."  
  
"Hey your right, I forgot that he'd had his powers taken from him some time ago during that fight on Leeanna's ship. Someone spaced him and everyone thought he was dead since he didn't have his powers anymore." Asrial muttered as old memories came back to her. "So where in the world did he get these new powers from?"  
  
"I'm not sure, but I should be able to find out easily enough with a few hours work in my lab." Gina says and grins down at Dog Supreme when they all heard a faint sound from outside the house.  
  
"Grrr.." Cha-Chink!  
  
"What was that?" Brianna asked, that had been a very familiar sound and one that suggested lots of violence.  
  
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!  
  
They all duck as the whole front of the house seems to implode under the power of high powered ordinance. It blows all them off their feet even as a large machine steps through the destruction of the house, points a very large gun in Asrial's face, from where she is half buried under a burning couch, even as the other arm fires out a small grappling hook and snatches Dog Supreme into its arms. It growls as it looks over the girls tossed about the destroyed room then turns to walk out of the house, fires it's flight thrusters and launches into the sky.  
  
"Groan..." Ranma mutters as she slowly digs herself out of the wall that had fallen on her. "This is just not my day." She mutters as she stands up and begins to dig everyone out of the rubble, they were just lucky that the explosion had just been the front room instead of the whole house. "Man, traveling around with the old man was a pain, but we were never blown up like this and it seems to happen to me ever couple of weeks."  
"You shut up Ranma and dig me out of here right now." Brianna said from behind the shredded remains of a chair that had been thrown up against a wall and covered in part of the ceiling.  
  
"Sure hold on a second." Ranma said, grabbed some debris and tossed it out on the front lawn. She had Brianna dug out in a few seconds, but other than some singed hair she seemed to be alright.  
  
It only took them a few more minutes to dig everyone else out of the rubble, Gina was a bit ticked about not having her force field belt on to protect her. She had never thought about wearing it around the house, there hadn't been any real need, but if this chaos that had been cropping up lately continued she would have to change that. It would take her a couple of days to get the house repaired and fixed up, that blast had caused tons of damage, even the kitchen was damaged since it was right next to this room. She sighed as she tapped a button on her watch and contacted her computer.  
  
"Working." The watch said.  
  
"Please send in a set of clean up bots to the living room, we've had a battle up here."  
  
"Acknowledged."  
  
"Gina, you've seen way to many sci-fi shows." Brianna said.  
  
"Hah, I'm such a genius! I'll have this fixed up in a few says easily you just wait and see."  
  
"Yeah, whatever. Asrial, this looks like it's over with for now, do you need a ride back to Quagmire?"  
  
"Naw, I can just call my car here and just fly back in that that way. No big problem now that I don't have to worry about it being blown out of the sky." She said.  
  
"Cool, that flying convertible of yours has always been a great idea." Brianna said.  
  
Asrial smirked, preened, and fluffed her hair. "True, true, I am Royalty after all."  
  
"Bah, Royalty in that outfit? I don't think so." Brianna said with a smirk and glanced down at the revealing metal bikini.  
  
"Hey!" Asrial yelled.  
  
Ranma wandered over to her double and looked her over, now that she wasn't trying to kill her, she had a feeling that things were going to change. They headed for the kitchen and Ranma took a second to change back to a guy and turned back to his...twin? "So what are we going to do now?"  
  
"I'm not sure, Gina gave me the ability to think for myself, but I really don't have any experience doing that. I consider you family, kind of an older brother, so we can work on it from there I guess." Ranko said.  
  
"How much of my martial arts do you remember?"  
  
"All of it. Why?"  
  
"Would you like to train with me in the mornings?"  
  
"I don't need to train, everything I know is ready to be used at a moments notice." Ranko said, she looked a little confused.  
  
"Naw, I meant about learning new moves." Ranma said as they headed for his room.  
  
"All I have to do is see a move and I can copy it perfectly."  
  
"You're kidding? That's amazing, how do you do that?"  
  
"It's just one of my many talents." Ranko said with a smirk.  
  
"Heh, this should be fun at least."  
  
As Ranko was entering Ranma's room she heard a grunt and saw Brianna running by, grabbing Ranma and throwing him over her shoulder. They ran down the stairs and into Brianna's room. The door swung shut as the entered and she could hear the door lock instantly. She stepped back and moved to go and help him when Gina grabbed her shoulder and shook her head. "That won't work, let's go to my room and boot up that little device I installed in her computer a few days ago."  
  
"But he might be in danger." Ranko said.  
  
"I highly doubt that Bri is hurting him."  
  
"Well alright, but we can see what is happening in there from your room?"  
  
"Yep." Gina said with a grin. "Asrial just took off and the bots are cleaning up the mess that explosion caused. Let's go and watch what is happening to Ranma, with my parents over in Jade for the next couple of days we can relax a little."  
  
Ranko shrugged.  
  
When they entered Gina's room she sat down at her wall sized computer, she liked them big, and started typing. Within seconds she had activated the linking device she had installed to look at Brianna's pictures. There was a mini-camera built into all the computers to give a live video link to any other computer in the house, kind of like a video phone. With a few strikes of a key it turned on and showed Brianna's room. Gina focused in on the bed and was surprised, very surprised to see that it was empty and still made. She frowned, adjusted the camera to show the whole room and saw that one of the doors to Brianna's lab was closed. She clicked her tongue and tapped a few more keys to bring up a map of Bri's lab area, that door seemed to lead to her super computer, the one that helped keep all the Peebo AI's running at all times. It had a massive memory and was always in a state of upgrade as she incorporated new ideas into it on a weekly basis.  
  
There was a connection to that computer as well because it was linked right into her own giant super computer on the bottom most level of their home. With a few taps of the keys the screen lit up to show that Ranma and Brianna were standing in small booths at either end of the lab. They were wearing body suits that covered them from head to toe, made out of a gray material of some kind with little boxes on their wrists, ankles, heads, and around their chests like and armor of some kind. There were wires that connected all of this and ran into an out let in the ceiling. They were just standing there like they were in a coma or something, then she realized what it was.  
  
"Ah HA!" Gina crowed. "Brianna is always coming up with the strangest devices, I didn't think she had started working with this stuff yet."  
  
"What's going on with them?" Ranko asked as she looked over Gina's shoulder.  
  
"Virtual reality, those suits they are wearing are touch sensitive and send sensations to any part of the body, it just depends on what they are experiencing within the VR world they are in. They are just playing a game, and here I thought they were having sex."  
  
"Can we see what they are playing?"  
  
"Sure, let me hook into the video feed." Gina said and started typing. After a few seconds she arched and eyebrow and smirked, Brianna had put in a lot of security programs to keep the game from being seen by outside computers. It actually took her about ten minutes of hacking to break through one of the back door areas. When the screen lit up Gina gasped, it was literally a video game, Mortal Kombat to be precise. Ranma was playing one of the guys, but Gina didn't know the game well enough to tell who it was, just that he was wearing a blue suit of some kind and kicking ass.   
  
"Fascinating." Ranko muttered.  
  
"Okay, now I'm confused, I know her and Ranma have had sex. I know her body language and how she acts after she kidnaps Genn and Seance for those little weekend sessions. What in the world is going on here?" Gina muttered.  
  
"Check the rules." Ranko suggested.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Ranma will have to follow the rules of any game he plays. Are there any punishments he has to suffer for losing?"  
  
"Hmm...one second, that's a good idea it would have taken me forever to think of that. It's too simple." Gina said as she found the file on rules and brought it up. After a few minutes of reading she started to blush. "Brianna your a pervert."   
  
"At least we know how she was pulling it off. She's playing off his pride and made him make a promise or take it up as a challenge. See it's listed right there." Ranko said as she pointed the line. "See over here are copies of the last few sessions they've had, wins, losses, and special bets. Ranma seems to be having problems with the higher range characters."  
  
"No wonder her bed was made, they do it all in virtual reality to keep certain problems form showing up. Those suits must be a lot more impressive than the ones we developed a few years ago to do that." Gina muttered and blushed a little more and wiggled around in her chair a little. "Um, Ranko, if you want to go back to Ranma's room that's fine. I'll assign you a new one tomorrow, but right now I've...got something to take care of."  
  
"We're not going to watch this?" Ranko asked in some surprise. On the screen Ranma was using his abilities to kick the crap out of some anime girl.  
  
Twitch. "Um, no, I have to leave for a while." Gina said and disconnected the computer.  
  
"Sure no problem, I'll just watch TV or something since I don't need to sleep."  
  
"You do that. I'll be back later alright?" Gina said as she headed for her closet, watched as Ranko left the room and dove across her room to the phone. Dialed a number at impressive speeds and stood there tapping her foot. "You better be there you jerk."   
  
"Hello?" Said a tired sounding voice.  
  
"Ryan, it's Gina."  
  
He grunted. "You do realize that it's close to midnight?"  
  
"I'm coming over for a bit of playtime." She said in a husky voice.  
  
"I'm up!" He yelled and she heard him fall out of bed and groan.  
  
"Be ready, I'll be there in ten minutes." She said as she hung up and dived into her closet and emerged a half second later in a very short clingy little black dress. With that she ran out of the room in a blur of motion. Got in her car and roared out of the driveway doing mach two before it took flight and headed across the city to where Ryan lived.  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
End Notes - Dog Supreme appeared in Issue 12 of the black and white series. The robot that saved him was Sparky, it has a dog like personality but looks like War Machine from Marvel comics Iron man, complete with lots of big weapons, flight pack, and evil looking armor. His original appearance and defeat was in Ninja High School, but I can't recall what issue it was off the top of my head. He's a flaky character with a big ego and a smoking habit, one minute he's loyal to the Zardons the next he's out to betray them and losing his powers, then he's free again and out to rule the universe through robotic look-alikes. He's a bit flaky. ^_^  
  
As for the rest of the chapter, Ranma accomplished some magic training and started to work with on of his other books. Yet, he managed to bet into another fight, this time with a super powered dog and still needed help. Why the hell does he keep cutting these fights so close? Why does he lose all the time? As the author only I know. Tee Hee 


	9. Chapter 09a

Notes - Hey all, just to let you know, this chapter is part one of two chapters. I'm releasing it early so that everyone can get a look at it. The second part is about a fourth of the way done and should be out in a few weeks. I was going to wait until they were both finished, but most everyone I talked to wanted to see this so they didn't have to wait any longer =]  
  
Enjoy, and remember to send me a comment or two to let me know what you think about it.   
  
New Web Site: http://shi_hanna.tripod.com/  
  
**********  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 09a  
Cory D. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c) 2002  
**********  
  
[On Jade, in some random village]  
  
There existed a small village hidden deep within the mountains, snuggled between a couple of tall cliffs that seemed to loom over the village like a pair of giants thinking about stepping on it like a bug. The villagers had lived there for generations, slowly changing from the miners that had originally built the town while to dig rare crystals out of the ground, and into the people they were today. Over the years it had grown in size and shrank back down when the land no longer had what they wanted and the people had moved on to other more profitable things. The items they had taken out of the ground during that time were some of the rarest items in the world. No one knew this of course, because if they had the town would have become the center of a war that had been plaguing the land of Jade for centuries. Of course that was exactly what happened this bright and sunny day when their worst nightmares were finally realized in a most painful and deadly manner. Though they really should have known that this threat wasn't the one they should have been afraid of in the long run, this was just the beginning of their problems.  
  
Old men hobbled down the street on their canes and acted like typical crusty old farts that had worked all their lives for little or nothing to show for it. Complaining about life, lost youth, and other things old men liked to talk about to pass the time. So when the light of the sun suddenly vanished they were slow to respond as they turned around and looked up into the sky and saw something that would have scared even the most experienced soldier into wetting themselves in fear. Their jaws dropped and drinks were dropped as they gazed up at the beast in fear. A dragon, a giant red dragon was diving down at the village using the sun to attack them from above and wouldn't notice him until it was to late to do anything. Those that spotted it were so shocked at the sudden attack that they didn't have time too respond to it and were the first to be roasted alive as it strafed the village with a long line of fire that vaporized everything in it's path. Then the dragon rose into the sky again, flipped a wings a few times and came back around for another pass, this time roaring at them with a sound that would have deafened anything within fifty feet of it.  
  
"ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!"  
  
It was a sound that very few people could ignore and the heads of every person in the village who didn't understand what was going on turned almost as one to look up into the sky in horror, some gasped, some screamed, and some wet their pants in fear. Then it opened it's mouth, picked out a couple of the larger buildings and blasted them with a full strength burst of hells fire that took out the house and several of those around it in an instant. A small mushroom cloud of fire and smoke rose up above the destruction, debrie rained down on the village as the full force of the blast was felt.   
  
"AGGGGGGHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"  
  
With a flap of it's wings it rose up above the fire and came back down moving in another direction with a gentle flap of it's wings and evil glint in it's eyes, its teeth glistening with salacious intent as it smirked on the hapless village below. *It wasn't often that it got a chance to go out and frighten a local village anymore, not since all those wizards had put a stop to their rise to power all those years ago and forced them to act within a certain code of conduct or die. Now a days they had to work in secret to accomplish anything at all and even that was in the dead of night to keep from being killed on sight. There were just too many people in the world that wanted to become a hero for slaying him and his kind these days, evil dragons were just a dieing breed it seemed. Right now he had a bit of leeway to work with and had decided to pay back a favor to an old ally and enjoying every minute of it as he dove out of the sky once more and used his eyes to track the fleeing worms below him. As he neared the ground he back winged and hovered above a house for a few seconds and obliterated it with a stream of controlled fire, which blew it to splinters, and melting the ground that it was sitting on in the process.  
  
Laughing at the weak and pathetic humans below him he flapped his wings a couple of times and pounced on one of the slower moving ones as they fled like ants from an anthill, grabbed him with his teeth and tossed the body into the air, and ate it on one gulp, cutting off it's screaming at the same time. Chewing him up, smoke came out of his nose and dripped blood off his chin as he enjoyed his small snack. It had been a long time since he last had a chance to eat a human and decided that he would have to take his time with the next one just to enjoy his meal a bit more, they had those gooey centers that just had to be savored like a rare wine. Swallowing, he turned to look around for the next tid-bit when several arrows bounce off his neck and jaw, turn his head he saw his next snack standing beside an undamaged house lowering a bow and shaking like a leaf. He was hiding behind the edge of a house for a bit of cover, with a sharp inhale of air, a stream of fire leveled the house and fried the guy where he was standing. It was easy enough to control the flame so that he cooked in his own juices and stayed as intact as possible, easier to digest too.   
  
He ate this one a little slower, biting the extremities off one at a time and licking his claws when he was done. Blowing a large puff of steam out he raised his neck up and looked around for his next meal, then blinked as he suddenly remembered why he had come here in the first place. With a shrug of his reptilian shoulders he takes to the sky to rain more fire down upon some of the still intact areas of the village and takes out a few more houses. He wanted them to remember him fondly for this, grinning to himself as the humans continued to flee the village and into the hills, he circled around and sent a wave of fire at them to make sure they didn't get away unscathed. With them gone he would have a better chance of finding the item he could sense, it's magic was very noticeable, but something was blocking it's exact location from him and would take a little while to track down. Scanning the remaining houses he focused in on a large wooden building snuggled within some trees at the middle of a small park in the center of the village, it was giving off a faint glow that even his eyes had trouble seeing. Even from here he could feel the powerful magic surrounding the area as he flew towards it and tried to find a way to get through the shield that surrounded the whole park. It was strong enough to keep even him from entering the area and looting the place for new items to add to his horde. Now how was he going to get through it and get that item and all the other little goodies?   
  
Well placed shots with his breath weapon leveled the houses around the small park and revealed more of the magical force field as it shrugged off the damage with little effort to show for it. Inhaling once more he coated the whole area in a stream of fire hot enough to melt even metal and held it for several seconds, but knew it hadn't worked as he relaxed and saw the magical shield waver for several seconds before setting down again. It's hum of power was just loud enough for him to hear with his sensitive ears. From the look of things his information had been right about the power of this object. He wasn't sure what kind of shield this thing was, but it had been placed by a very powerful master mage of some kind. That meant he was going to have to use a different kind of way to get through than brute force.  
  
Raising his head high he sniffed the air to see if there were any humans in the area that might not have run from his onslaught, but they were long gone except for some injured in the nearby burning buildings and wouldn't bother him any time soon. This gave him a little time to work on this problem without being molested by the local food supply. Smirking, he concentrated on casting a spell, his body shimmered for a couple of seconds as it shrank in on itself, making his skin ripple and shift as he took on a humanoid form. Long ago he had been forced to adopt a human form and name to master parts of his draconic magic, luckily a Polymorph spell was strong enough to allow him to make some changes to the form to suit his needs. He was close to seven foot tall, had reddish black skin, long black hair in a pony tail and enough muscles to make anyone pause to look at him in awe. Since he had once again forgotten to include clothes in the spell he was completely naked as well, enough to make a woman faint at the sight of his scaled back and glowing red eyes.  
  
Ignoring his nakedness, he made a gesture he produced a small yellow stone with a red ruby set in the center and held it against the shield for a couple of seconds, the stone glowed and exploded in a shower of dust that rained all around him. He frowned as he looked at his bleeding fingers, that hadn't been what he was trying for at all. That little stone had gotten him through several powerful magic force fields, creating the perfect door for him to get through. With a shrug he gestured again and pulled a small dagger from nowhere, an emerald set into the hilt started to glow instantly as he stabbed it into the shield, the glade went through completely and started to glow as well. It spread to the shield and lit it up like a spot light, sending light high into the sky for several seconds before the shield gave out completely and collapsed in on itself.  
  
Chuckling to himself as he put the dagger away he moved through the small park, pushed down a couple of trees, and stood in front of the building holding his prize. He was still amazed that such a prize would just be sitting there in plane sight for anyone to take if they wanted to. That shield had been strong, but not strong enough to stop him or his magical abilities. Slamming his fist into the door, he shattered it into several pieces and took a few extra seconds to rip the rest of the wall away to get inside the building. He was just to damned tall to go in the normal way and a dragon just wasn't used to using doors. Surprisingly there weren't any traps inside, or any that he might have set off anyway. The room was cluttered with various items from the village's history, rusty swords, armor, spears of various types, and other odds and ends stacked up against the wall while there were glass cases holding various items set in the center of the room. It was pretty obvious that no one had been in here for some time from all the dust he was stirring up. He walked through the room, his senses scanning everything within sight as he searched. It was in here, he knew that, but it would have been a little easier if he knew what it looked like instead of just sensing it's powerful presence.   
  
A few minutes later he found it near the back of the room in a wall cabinet case with a cracked glass front, looking down on it was a bit of a disappointment as well. It was an Amulet of some kind, to his senses it glowed as bright as a torch now that he was focused on it. Raising his clawed hand he brought it down on the case and shattered most of the door easily enough and reached in to pull it out for a better look. It was about the size of a large coin with a number of little symbols etched into the sides of it with a small sunburst picture in the center. For some reason he had really been expecting something more, but this was what he'd been sent to get so who was he to complain? Turning around he nearly ran into a guy in full plate armor, but that was okay, the long evil looking sword that had just been shoved through his stomach and popped out his back in a shower of reddish black blood had stopped him.  
  
"Idiot dragon, in your normal form you are completely impervious to most damage. Then you transform into a humanoid form and loose all of that protection you still walk around and act as if you had nothing to worry about. Yet here you are, impaled on my sword as easily as cutting through pudding, your a pathetic distraction."   
  
"R-Rook?"   
  
Rook twisted the sword and yanked it out with a snarl, the transformed dragon fell to his knees clutching his stomach and looked up at the armored knight as he resheathed his bloody sword. "There is a super powerful poison on the blade that should be enough to keep even your magic working over time to make sure you can still breath in an hour."   
  
"But...b-but..."  
  
Grabbing the amulet, Rook quickly threaded a metal chain through it and hung it about his neck, just under the edge of his armor. Kicking the dragon in the side, Rook laughed as he turned and walked away from the body. He had plans to set in motion, after months of planning he was just about ready. All he had to do was keep certain people busy while he snuck in the back way and took over this whole area and recent events had left him with quite a large undead army. He looked around as he exited the half demolished building and made sure the two zombies he'd left outside were still there. They were good for guard duty like this and could take quite a bit of punishment before they went down permanently, but he had better uses for them than this. Skeletons were the only things that worked better, but they were a pain in the ass to work with.   
  
Set them in front of a door and they can stay there for hundreds of years guarding it perfectly. This was short notice though, so the zombies from the local graveyard would do for now. There was a large undead bird kneeling on the ground nearby, it was wearing a saddle and looked like it had been dead for some time. Most of it's feathers were gone and replaced with a kind of ghostly looking after image and an aura of power that kept even the Zombies at bay while it rested. It was one of Rook's favorite undead, a Litch Werven, and it had followed him faithfully since the day he raised it from the dead all those years ago. The thing was almost like a pet to him, he patted it's head as he mounted and they launched into the air with a loud screech from the Werven.  
  
Below him the zombies turned as one and headed into the building to finish off the dragon and fill the bags they had with them with the rest of the odd items the building held. There was a roar of anger just as they vanished in side and the building exploded in a giant fireball of destruction. The fire rose up high and took on a winged shape for several seconds before it died back down, raining fire all over the village and burning it to the ground. By this time Rook was to far away to notice, but even if he had, it wouldn't have mattered to him. He had other things on his mind and this was but the first step in his plan. On another plane of existence an old werecat wearing black robes sensed something upon the winds around him and moved to see what it was.  
  
**********  
  
[On Earth]  
  
Ranma sipped at his pop while he watched some boring movie and really wished he hadn't told the girls that he was bored. So he had to go to Gina and ask her if there was anything he could do that would be more interesting than his normal routine, that had been his first mistake. The second had been agreeing to watch this movie with her as they prepared a giant barrel full of popcorn and sent out for chips, pop, and a bit of dip. His eyes drooped and he nearly fell out of his chair asleep as the girls around him were glued to the screen with large awe filled eyes that seemed to reflect the movie in front of them. A ship was sinking, people were drowning as they babbled at each other about the injustice of it all, oh yeah, that was interesting. The sex scene had been a good change of pace, but fogged windows and a hand print in the glass had been so lame, they hadn't even shown anything as far as he could tell. Though he had nearly slept through the scene in his bordom, but the girls wanted him awake to torture him it seemed.   
  
Titanic, worlds biggest bore fest. What was even worse was that Gina, Brianna, Britanny, Penny, and Charlotte were all weeping openly at the movie as they ate popcorn and blew their noses. One of them had even been 'kind' enough to toss a glass of water on him and turn him into a girl earlier, saying something about how he had to experience the movie in the proper form. That hadn't gone over very well, twenty minutes later she had been asleep and had the girls glaring at her for snoring through the best part of the movie, according to them. So one quick change later, an attempt to leave, and several threats about finishing the movie and he was sitting there sipping at his pop and wondering why one on of the antenna on the ship looked like someone had gone a little overboard with a big glob of glue.  
  
He couldn't even remember the names of the main characters and made a note to himself that asking girls for something interesting to do seemed to lead to even more boredom than what he had started out with. Ranma yawned and had the girls throw kernels of popcorn hat him for disturbing the movie, at least it was buttered and of decent quality. Leaning back in his chair he started to meditate by looking at the TV, the one that covered the whole wall, and not seeing anything. Instead he was focusing his internal energies and hoping to find something out of place, but over the last several days he'd slowly balanced out as his power grew and evened out into a manageable level. All that training had worn him down though, even Dr. Diggers had told him to take a day or two off.  
  
Sniffle!  
  
"Can I leave? Please?" Ranma asked as he was startled out of his trance, it must not have been a long as it seemed because the dumb ship was still sinking.  
  
The girls just glared at him. "Don't you have a heart? This is the most beautiful movie ever created!" Britanny yelled at him without moving her eyes from the screen.  
  
"This movie is boring." Ranma snapped. "Where's the action? Where's the bad guys and guns?"  
  
"Oh shut up, this is a great movie." Charlotte snapped as she blew her nose, her large innocent eyes glued to the screen as she clutched a pillow.  
  
"What about the guy with the gun they showed ealier, that should have caught your attention."  
  
"He shot himself, oh yeah, that was good action scene." Ranma muttered as the girls threw more popcorn at him.  
  
Ranma sighed as the credits rolled some twenty minutes later, the girls were all weeping over the guy drowning. He hadn't been all that impressed with it, he'd seen people drown before and it's wasn't as calm and clean as the thing had just shown. Rising to his feet he back flipped over the couch and headed for the kitchen for another pop as the girls all glared at him for ruining their movie. He saw that one of the lights on the little panel by the kitchen door was flashing, Gina had told him that it was like and answering machine, but that they rarely used it. Noting it, he made his way over to the large fridge, grabbed another pop, and headed back into the living room.  
  
"I want to watch it again!" Charlotte yelled at Penny.  
  
"It's three bloody hours long! I don't want to sit through that again unless I'm at home in bed. Preferable with Ace somewhere close by." Penny countered, then grinned. "Hey, Gina can I have a copy of this?"  
  
"Sure! I have several copies already made up, I figured everyone would want one to take with them." Gina said as she passed out several DVD's.  
  
Rolling his eyes, Ranma shuddered a little. "Hey, Gina, that panel on the kitchen wall is blinking. The one you said was for messages or something."  
  
"Why didn't I hear the phone?" Gina blinked and looked over at the phone where Britanny had unplugged it earlier. "Oh yeah! Who was it from?"   
  
"I have no idea how to work the thing, you never showed me how."  
  
"Well then, let's find out." Gina said as she headed for the kitchen and checked the panel, the rest of the girls followed after her, except Penny and Charlotte, but they were to busy fighting over the DVD Gina had just handed them. Gina tapped a button on the panel and it's tiny screen lit up with a bit of information. "It's on the Holophone that Brianna gave to Sheila the last time she went to Jade."  
  
"Sheila called?" Brianna asked.  
  
"Seems like it, let's see what she had to say." Gina said as she tapped another button and a section of the wall pulled back and to the side to reveal a small three inch holo projector lens. It lit up and formed a life size version of Sheila in front of everybody, she was wearing her Edge Guard uniform. They could see Gar fighting Tirga in the background, pounding the living crap out of him.   
  
"Hey, I hope I got this thing to work right. Anyway, this is for Ranma, I was wondering if you wanted to go on a hunt with me this weekend. If so just meet me at the Compound early Saturday morning at around sun up, bring weapons, armor, and whatever else you want. Thanks!" Sheila said with a wave and a smile as she vanished, but not before everyone got to see Tirga take a shot to the nads and fly out off the screen with a look of dismay on his face.  
  
"You sly dog! She wants to go out with you!" Brianna yelled and slapped Ranma on the back.  
  
Ranma twitched, that wasn't how he had heard the message at all.  
  
"Hey, good going Ranma, from the way you two parted the last time you were together I thought she didn't want to talk to you ever again." Gina said, Britanny had told her all about Ranma's last trip to Jade.  
  
"Well...um...that is..." He stuttered out.  
  
"Don't worry, we'll give you a hand getting ready for the trip. I've been on a hunt myself and I know just what you need." Brianna said with a smirk that made Ranma start sweating nervously, it was the same one that she had given him during the VR game she invented.  
  
"Oh, um, thanks I think. I'm not sure what I should take with me, but I have been meaning to apologize to her."  
  
Theme music to Titanic is heard in the living room again, all the girls blinked and turned toward the room with glazed eyes and little smiles on their faces. Ranma just backed away, there was something seriously wrong with a movie that did this to a girls mind and he was happy as he was immune to whatever it was. He would have to go through the living room to get to his bedroom though, so after the girls were gone he slowly opened the door and facefaulted. In the resulting ten seconds after the girls had left, they had tore the living room up and turned it into a giant sleepover party. They were all in their bras and panties hugging pillows and glued to the TV, including Ranko, who looked confused, but willing to play along.  
  
A pillow hit him in the head as he stood up.   
  
"NO BOYS ALLOWED!" They all yelled at him and he ran out of the room as other things came flying at him.  
  
**********  
  
[Jade]  
  
The cart's wheels shook and wobbled as it slowly made it's way down the road being pulled by a couple of huge plodding oxen. The cart was full of boxes and crates of various sizes, even some bags scattered here and there in the back of the cart. The driver was an old man with a long white beard that fell down to his feet as he sat there holding the reigns to the oxen and smoking a cigar. His was all skin and bones and wearing a thin cloth sack for a robe, his arms stuck out the sides where he had cut out arm holes and his head came out the top where he had used a knife to remove some of the stitching. He had a large brimmed hat on his head that hid most of his face along with a cloud of cigar smoke that seemed to hover around him and hide his features. Every now and then he would flick the guide rope and Oxen would continue to plod on, over ruts in the road, sticks, small animals, and any bandits that might have gotten in their way. All were left in the oxen tracks, and in return they would lift their tails and leave these little surprises for anyone that wanted them.  
  
For the old man it was a pretty typical day and he seemed to have a good grasp of things as he steered the cart and plodded on around a hill, through a valley, over a little dog, and into the man made pass that led up to the castle high above on the cliffs. It belonged to the local evil overlord that had owned the place for the last few generations, neighbors were nonexistent, but that was because of all the undead that had populated the castle over the years. It would take another two hours to get there, but while on this mountain he took a few extra precautions as the cart started to head up. Pulling an evil looking crossbow from the box below his seat and loading two of his special bolts into the odd mechanism he smirked behind a cloud of smoke and made sure the thing would fire when he wanted it to. It had little animal skulls attached to main stock to give it just right feel when holding it. He pulled his hat down a little further and leaned forward as the first gate came into sight from between the trees. This place gave him the creeps sometimes, but they paid good money and that was what he liked about them. He had another reason for being here as well, but that was just a secondary pleasure he would take up with his children. There were several zombies wandering around in front of the gate as the Oxen decided to stop for once. One of the Zombies wandered over and looked up at him with gimlet like eyes and smell that only the newly dead could wear, that was one of the reasons he smoked the cigars.   
  
"What's your business here old fart." The teen zombie asked.  
  
"Call me Ol'Jeb."  
  
"&%$# you old fart!"  
  
It looked like the master of the castle was raising younger than normal zombies of late, he almost grabbed the cross bow and put a bolt through the thing's head just to show it what he thought of that comment, but he didn't want to end up a part of this army if he could help it. So he held his tongue and tried to talk to the rude little jerk, then shrugged, he would show this little punk just who he was. "Shut up you little pecker, you know who I am and I come through here every six months or so to sell my stuff to Master Rook and the others up at the castle. Now let me through or there is going to be trouble, a lot of trouble."  
  
"Man, I could breath in your general direction and you would fly off that decrepit crate you old geezer. I don't know who you are, but unless you want to join this army as a foot stool, turn this crate around and go somewhere else."   
  
Teenage Zombies, all the skill, smell, and attitude wrapped up into one little package that resented the whole world, Ol'Jeb hated them with a passion. "I'd like to talk to your commanding officer sonny, he knows me and the castle always allows me to make this trip worth while."  
  
"Listen pops..."  
  
Twang! Thump! Reload...  
  
The teenage Zombie blinked and felt the bolt sticking out of his head with a show of surprise. "Hey, there was no call for that! Do you know what kind of time I have to put in just to keep looking relatively human? Hours and hours of upkeep ruined because you shot me in the head and pulling it out will cause even more damage! I oughta kick your ass for this you worthless waste of skin!"  
  
Twang! Thump! Thump!  
  
"Hey! Cut that out, those were my eyes! That's it, orders or no orders you are one dead geezer!" He yelled and reached for his sword.  
  
Pulling the cigar out the old man reached out and casually lit the little wick that stuck out the back end of the bolts and lit all three of them. "I normally light these before I fire, but I wanted to give you a warning you little whippersnapper and now you get to pay."  
  
The teen zombie froze in mid pull as his ears picked up a hissing sound around the front of his face. "Huh?"  
  
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!  
  
Little bits of zombie rained down around the cart for the next few seconds and the old man used his hat to keep it away from his face. One of the oxen snagged a partially intact foot and chewed on it for a few seconds before spitting it out. An older zombie, this one was well on it's way into a decomposed state and barely recognizable, stumbled forward and shook his head as the saw the stain that the explosion had left. He looked up at the old man and smiled, something most people wouldn't have been able to stomach even under the best of circumstances. "Hey pops, back already?"  
  
"Hey, didn't recognize you there youngster, got a promotion lately have you? You may be dead and all but your mother would still like to hear from you every now and then. You haven't written in over a year now, she was crying about it just the other day and wondering if she should send you some sewing thread or something to help you maintain yourself."  
  
"I died thirty years ago and got inducted into the army, it isn't like I have the free time to just sit down and write a letter you know."  
  
The old man snorted. "I was in the army, it's all waiting and waiting and waiting, with bits of excitement here and there. So don't lie to me, I know how lazy you are after all. It's what got you killed in the first place."  
  
"Humph! I've been constantly on the move for the last few months, going here, there, scaring some girls in a field, jumping out of some random alley and scaring a vender or a random thief. I just haven't time, plus you know we don't get paid for this job."  
  
"I still say you could get a better job and send money home to your mother."  
  
The zombie sighed, how is any bodies guess, and nearly lost it's tongue in the process. "We are not allowed to disobey the Master pops, you know that, and you doing this to any zombie that you don't like, especially young Ralphie here isn't going to go over very well with them up at the castle either. He was only raised last week and was still learning the ropes."  
  
"Punk kid should have known better than to disrespect me like that, I'm old, I've earned a bit of respect."  
  
"Bah, you doddering old fool! You may by my father, but you sure as hell haven't earned any kind of respect! You sit in a cart all day long and watch the oxen shit all over the ground, it's all you ever do!"  
  
Thunk!  
  
"Yo-You just SHOT me! Your own son!"   
  
"Teach you to call me names and insult me to my face!"   
  
"Look at this! It goes right through my chest and out the back! This will take forever to fix!"  
  
"Hah! At least I didn't light it the stupid thing!"  
  
"AGHAAAAAA!!! DIE OLD MAN!"  
  
The old man stood up and jumped off the cart like a twenty year old and started to kick the crap out of his son, show him a bit of discipline. His undead son retaliated with a haymaker and sent him sprawling, but he rolled to his feet and came back with a hard elbow to the chin that threw his son back into the oxen's hind quarters. It raised it's head and back kicked him, sending the zombie flying into the trees several yards away. The old man grinned as he heard bones and branches breaking as the zombie fell to the ground and didn't get back up. Sighing, the old man removed his hat and held it over his heart and bowed his head for a few seconds, then remounted the cart and clicked the reigns. Along with the constant plodding, his oxen didn't like to be touched and tended to kick out and buck every now and then, so he had built the stocks that held them out a little further to keep them from kicking him in the face.  
  
The gates to the next part of the road opened up as he mounted the cart and he headed forward, he smirked to himself though. He hadn't wanted to do that, but the little backstabber had it coming for ignoring his mother. Puffing on his cigar he wondered what the rest of the day would bring, this was only the first of four gates he had to travel through. Him and the wife had quite a large extended family and several of them were now working here at the castle as zombies or ghosts. Sometimes they needed a bit of discipline to make them work a little harder, so he was here to do just that. Oh, and make some money too, couldn't forget the real reason he had come here for in the first place. An evil smile graced his face as the next gate came into sight and he spotted a new face, a cousin of his if he remembered right. The guy still owed him some money too, luckily he had just reloaded the crossbow.  
  
**********  
  
[Earth]  
  
"Um?" Ranma said as Brianna and Gina shouldered their way into his room with a bunch of stuff in their arms tossed it all on his bed with a grunt. Curious, Ranma walked over to see what they had tossed on the bed, it was a pretty good sized pile. There was a fanny pack with tools, a couple dozen guns of varying levels of destructive ability. Lots of clothing, two pairs of boots, gloves, a fedora hat with a red stripe around it, hand mirror, a pair of bracers, and a box of condoms. "What do I need all this for? It's just a hunt, running around in the woods and shooting a deer or a rabbit for lunch."  
  
"Ha!" Brianna yelled and poked him with a finger. "A hunt in Jade is way different than the one's we have here. Over there a hunt is used to keep certain animals down to a minimum so that they don't become a danger to the local farmers and such. Normally one goes into the woods to hunt down dangerous animals, they could be anything from an imp to some kind of swamp monster. You need the artillery to take down those kinds of threats, you could get killed if you aren't prepared! Here, I think I tossed a rocket launcher in here somewhere, let me show you how it works!"  
  
"Alright, that explains the guns, but what about this extra large box of condoms?" Ranma asked and blushed as he picked it up, there were thirty of the things in there according to the printing on the box. What the heck would he do with thirty condoms?  
  
Brianna sighed and nudged him with her elbow a little and winked at him.. "Just you and Sheila out there in that forest, alone, sharing a tent, who knows where thing will go?"  
  
"Oh right, like she would want to do anything like that." Ranma muttered as he tossed the box back on the pile on the bed.  
  
"You never know, so just take them along to be prepared." Gina said as she sat a couple bottles of wine on top of the pile and whistled innocently.  
  
"I really doubt she wants to go through all this just to have sex, you two. Anyway, where am I going to hold all this?" Ranma muttered as flashbacks of Brianna's sex education classes came back to him, he shuddered a little.  
  
"You get to have access to some of our special adventuring equipment, that's what, but you will have to conceal it since certain types of technology, most kinds, are illegal on Jade and have to be kept out of sight if you have them." Gina said.  
  
"A little is fine if the situation demands it and you have it available, we usually get given a little leeway because we are from the Earth Realm as they like to call this place." Brianna explained with a grin as she picked up a hand gun and played with it a little, putting a little red dot on the wall from it's under the barrel mounted laser sight and made bang noises.  
  
Ranma had learned a lot in Brianna's little VR game since weapons were as much a part of the story line she created as martial arts. He had spent several hours 'game time' learning how to shoot them, but had never really been able to understand what she saw in the things. He shrugged, he would take some of this stuff with him and use it if he really needed it, but otherwise he planned to stick with his martial arts and limited magic training, it would give him a chance to perfect a couple of things he was working on. He was almost all the way through the book that Dr. Diggers had given him and knew ten of the fifteen spells now. He could even adapt them if he needed to, but the pattern that he imagined in his head was the main catalyst for the magic and kept it from doing something really bad like killing people. More magic users had been killed by picturing a bad pattern than people wanted to talk about, only those with the mental discipline to keep it perfect ever made it past the apprentice level as a magic user and with some people that took years, even decades. A rare one percent of these people had the strength of will to rise to the top level of magic users and a spot on the Mage Council.  
  
"Alright Ranma, the main piece of equipment you will have to carry around with you at all times are these bracers I made for you last night after we got Sheila's message. They are going to be the main thing you carry with you, I designed them to look like this because I noticed you are always wearing a cloth pair." Gina explained.  
  
Ranma picked them up and examined the half inch thick bracers and wondered if they would impede his martial arts in anyway. "Why are they so thick? That will cause me some problems, but nothing major."  
  
"They are one of my latest designs and I was rushed for time, anyway remove those cloth bracers you are wearing and toss them on the bed. Then set the bracer against your arm and hold it there for a few seconds."   
  
With a shrug Ranma followed the instructions, the dull metal sat there for a second before it seemed to phase around his arm and lock in place. He almost fell over in shock, but after all this time with these girls, it was really hard to surprise him with stuff like this. They liked to walk around the house in their underwear, something like this wouldn't surprise him as much as walking into the living room and seeing three girl sitting around in panties. Picking up the other bracer he did the same and was soon looking down at the two dull metal devices on his forearms. "Now what? Their not as heavy as I would have thought."  
  
"Say 'computer'." Gina said.  
  
"Computer?"   
  
With a little his, the top part of his left hand bracer swung open to reveal a small computer with a series of buttons with little pictures on them. Gina beamed in pride, happy that her invention hadn't blown up and taken Ranma with it, but he didn't need to know that. "Now to make this easy to use I used pictures for the buttons, though you can say the name out loud while the computer is open and they will activate as well. The first button is the Hyperspace pocket that we adapted from the Light gate technology a few months ago, though this is an experimental version I've been working with using things you couldn't even possibly begin to understand."  
  
"Um...yeah?" Ranma said as he bit his tongue and fiddles with it little.  
  
"Anyway, the first button is the one with a circle, press that while you are holding something and it will be transported into a Hyperspace. Test it out, I want to see if everything is working right now that they are on your arms."  
  
Shrugging, he picked up the mirror and pressed the button. It vanished in a flash of light and the word mirror appeared on the little screen to tell him what it was. "Cool! How much can this thing hold?"  
  
Gina sighed with relief when Ranma wasn't paying attention and grinned at him, she would be adding this to her normal equipment as soon as she could. "It should be able to hold about four times as much as your back pack easily. Each normal item like food, clothing and money should be used with that button. The rest of the buttons are specialty buttons, you'll notice that they have little pictures of a hat, gun, boots, bow, rifle, a little mech warrior, and a sword. That is a special space for that type of item and can hold three of each kind, by holding it or touching it and saying it name after pressing the button it will be stored away. After that you will be able to just say something like, gun #1, and it will appear in your hand with a flash of light."  
  
"What will I do about my pack? It carries a ton of stuff in it as well, plus it's weight is part of my training."  
  
"You shouldn't need it anymore, but you can take it with you if you want, though it will be next to useless."  
  
"What about if the bracers break?"  
  
"They are armored and should be able to take quite a bit of damage, I used a bit of my Beta Technology in them to miniaturize everything and it keeps them just a tiny bit out of phase with the things around you. It would take being dropped into lava for several hours to damage them and while you're wearing them they can't be taken from you unless you take them off."  
  
"Geeze Gina, you didn't install a Beta Weapon in those things did you?!" Brianna yelled, that stuff was dangerous.  
  
Gina giggled nervously. "Well, um, I did come up with a little thing."  
  
"This Beta Technology is...bad?" Ranma asked as he stopped fiddling and gave Brianna a look out of the corner of his eye.  
  
"What did you do Gina?" Brianna asked.  
  
"It's just a little thing, a kind of side effect really, I didn't even know it was there until I finished my tests this morning."  
  
"Gina!"  
  
"Jinkies, look at the time. Star Trek is one in a few minutes." Gina said, looked at her bare wrist where a watch should have been and began edging out of the room as she giggled nervously.  
  
Brianna blocked off her path, using the speed she had inherited from Britanny. "What. Did. You. Do?"  
  
"Now come on, it's nothing to worry about." Gina tried as Brianna grabbed her shirt.  
  
"Just like it wasn't anything to worry about that time when you gave Britanny that Beta Circle, that if she didn't manage to hit a Beta Phantom with it the thing would have blown up with even more force than a nuclear bomb? Or the..."  
  
"Alright, alright! It's not that bad, the bracers have the ability to create mini-circles!"  
  
"Mini-circles? Oh great, it wasn't like you didn't give Britanny that circle that attached a few tons of weight to her wrist that she couldn't even feel." Brianna said, glaring at her sister. "Remember what the did to the lab door just by touching it with her finger? What do these do?"  
  
"It was a side effect of the miniaturization process, so long as he doesn't activate them he will be fine."  
  
"How big an explosion?"  
  
"Um...I calculated something about the size of a four city blocks." Gina squeaked out.  
  
"Gina I'm gonna..." Brianna muttered, blinked, and patted her on the back with a huge grin. "That's great! I never new my sister had it in her to create such a weapon! I want one too!"  
  
"Ah..." Ranma muttered, to frozen in fear from having bombs on his arms that he couldn't move. He didn't want to set them off.  
  
Gina patted him on the back and nearly made him wet his pants. "Don't worry about it Ranma, I told you those things are nearly indestructible. Just don't push the button that activates them." She ginned at him cutely and blinked a couple of times.  
  
"What button activates them?" He got out.  
  
"This little red one over here." Said and pointed it out. "Even then it will just create a circle of beta energy that can be used to as a weapon, you will just have to worry about it destabilizing and blowing up on you. This is a much improved version from the one I had my sister test last year."  
  
"Which version are these?" Brianna asked.   
  
"The second version of course, there was no one around to test them so I had to wait for someone that was willing to. This is the perfect chance." Gina said and cackled a little as she walked out of the room. "Don't forget about the other uses the bracers have."  
  
Um...yeah." Ranma muttered, sweating nervously. He was thinking that these girls were going to be the death of him, first they drag him here, then they bore him to tears, and now he had bombs strapped to his arms. This was turning out to be a really weird week for him and he didn't want to think about what tomorrow would bring. For a few seconds there he wanted to go back to the old man and just be tortured every day of his life, it was so much easier to handle than this kind of punishment. Though he had to admit that the view was better as Brianna bent over to pick something up off the bed, much better.  
  
"Oh cheer up Ranma! Don't forget to add those condoms to the storage space, okay?" Brianna said as she stood up, pinched his cheek and whispered in his ear before she left.  
  
Ranma sighed as they left, getting used this kind of danger was taking more than he had at the moment. Moving over to the closet he pulled his pack out to transfer supplies, got an idea, and touched the pack as he pressed the button. The whole thing lit up with a flash of light and vanished from sight, he smirked, he liked this part of the deal. He could take it all with him and use it if there was an emergency. The next step was all the weapons on his bed, he really didn't want to take them. He planned on using this as a training trip and a chance to learn a few new things. As he headed out of the room he had a feeling that the next few days were going to be interesting, more so than normal, but first he was going to have a little talk with Gina before she got away.  
  
**********  
  
[Jade]  
  
The bed was covered in discarded dresses as Sheila tried to find just the perfect outfit for this hunt, she wanted to impress Ranma when he arrived. It had taken a while, but she had finally forgiven him for that little comment he made the last time they were together and he had been trying to complement her. She had never been so mad in her life and still couldn't believe that he had said something like that to her face. Still, now that he was coming for a visit she would have a chance to really impress him with her skills. Fighting side by side against the monsters of the forest swamp they were going to be traveling through would be the perfect time to try and patch things up between them. That was why she was standing in front of a fill sized mirror in a her skimpiest outfit and trying to look sexy.  
  
Her thrice damned birth defect that kept her werejaguar form looking about the size of a human made her look like a teenager playing dress up, it annoyed the hell out of her and would have given just about anything to be a normal werejaguar instead of this defective version. It had it's uses, but in a relationship she needed a bit more ammunition than the ability to look cute. She shifted to her human form, shot up almost ten inches and developed a body that any female body builder would have sold their soul for. Looking in the mirror proved just how good looking it was and she smiled at herself, she had more skin showing than she knew what to do with and blushed a solid red. Shifting back quickly, she sighed and took off the miniskirt and half shirt she was wearing and went back to her closet. If this kept up she was going to have to go and buy a new outfit for her meeting tomorrow and she really didn't have the money at this time.  
  
Then she came across something she had forgotten about, Britanny's shiny black skin tight body suit. She had left the Lookout without giving it back the day Ranma had called her a sex crazed deviant, it would do nicely with a few added enhancements from other parts of her collection and would allow her to shift forms and still look good. Britanny always did have good tastes in fashion, heck when she went to the mall the store employees called her by name when they said hello. It was perfect except for one little problem that Britanny had once mentioned, she had to have special underwear so that they weren't visible through the spandex. That would mean a trip to her special box, the one that even Gar didn't know about and was hidden from everybody who knew her. Dashing across the room she locked the door, looked around like a thief on the prowl, closed the window, curtains, and made sure that there was no way to get into the room without her knowing. She even closed the chimney flue to make doubly certain that she was safe before she shifted to her human form and stepped into the closet.  
  
There is the sound of things being moved, a grunt, and wood being scrapped against wood just before the door opens up to reveal her standing there with a small box in her hands. Britanny had gotten her this for Christmas a few years back and she had kept it stashed away where no one would ever be able to find it unless they knew about the special hide away that she'd paid a dwarf to build into her in the closet on the sly. Opening the box and setting the lid to the side she carefully pulled the color paper to the side to reveal about a dozen pairs of naughty underwear and blushed. She had no clue where Britanny had found underwear like this, but every time she put them on she felt dirty, in a good way. Tirga had this kind of radar that made him appear every time she decided to wear a pair of these under her normal clothes, paying more attention to her and other things. Though she had once thought about making him wear a pair of them just to see make him play fair, she had been wearing a belly dancers costume at the time and had gotten just little ticked at him for commenting on it while they were performing an infiltration job during the last Tournament of Arms.  
  
How he knew or at least suspected when she was wearing the things was a mystery, but she would have to keep him from bothering her when Ranma showed up. Maybe she could beat him off with a stick this time since she didn't want him groping her like he did last time. This outfit was an attention grabber and she wanted Ranma to notice her, not Tirga. Grabbing the light blue pair she changed into them and understood why Britanny had called them bunn floss panties, they barely covered her other bits either, but that didn't matter as she pulled on the black spandex body suit and stepped over to the mirror and smirked at herself as she examined herself from all directions. She looked good and since Britanny had given her the clothes she knew that shifting forms in this was safe, the panties would stretch out too. They even had that tail hole in the back so that she could shift to any form she wanted with no trouble at all. It was common theme for any kind of clothing a werecreature had to have if they wanted to be comfortable in any outfit.  
  
Shifting to her human form she flexed her arms a couple of times and noticed that it looked like she had on a new kind of mage suit, except this one gleamed like it was wet and molded to her every curve. If this didn't catch Ranma's eye she would have to throw him on the ground and have her way with him to make him understand. Shifting back she grabbed a leather coat off the bed, a pair of thin black silk gloves, and her boots before stepping back to the mirror. She really liked what she was seeing, but there was something missing, the outfit needed a belt of some kind to draw the eye or everybody would be looking at her crotch or her breasts when she talked to them. The only belt she had was the adventuring belt she wore when she was on a mission for the Edge Guard though, so it would have to do.   
  
Brianna had once said that the thing looked like a pair of crossed gun belts that used to be used in the old west on Earth. They hung around her waist and had several magical pockets to hold her gear, Brianna had modified one to have a holster at the side that tied around the wearers thigh when she was here the last time. Hers didn't have that, but the pockets were full of little things that might come in handy and she had been planning on taking it with her when she went out on the hunt. Nodding to herself she quickly put the box away and set the outfit to the side as she got dressed in her normal clothes again. The next couple of days were going to be fun, she could feel it, all she had to do was get Ranma in just the right place and she could finally release a bit of built up stress. Smirking to herself she slinked out the door and headed down the street for a bit of supper, it was little late, but she had to get some real food in her before everyone showed up.  
  
A few minutes later she entered The Burning Drum and headed over to the owner. "Hi Phil."  
  
"Hi Sheila, what can I get for you tonight." He lisped.  
  
"Got any of that special left over?"  
  
"Sure, I'll be right back. The usual size helping?"  
  
"Yeah, that would be great Phil." Sheila said as she eased into a nearby both and relaxed a bit. The place was mostly empty except for a traveling swordsman over in one corner, he looked mostly harmless though, so she ignored him and waited for Phil to come back with her soup. She took a closer look at the swordsman and wondered why he looked kind of familiar, he was tall, wearing hardened leather body armor with rather large shoulder pads, had long dark hair with the hint of spots here and there, and a monstrous sword across his back. He was slowly making his was through his meal with dogged determination like that used by people that didn't get to eat very often, something about him made her think that he was more than he seemed. She was not in the mood to kick some criminal's ass tonight, there were much better things to do with her time so she decided to just ignore him and hope he was a nobody. Over the years as a member of the Edge Guard she had developed a kind of sixth sense that let her get a feel for people.  
  
She was thankful that he wasn't doing anything at the moment that would have forced her to arrest him. Phil came back with her food and sat a large bowl of soup, a plate of bread, and some fruit down in front of her before heading back into the kitchen. Grabbing a spoon she dug into the thick soup and concentrated on eating for a little while, imagining Ranma as she did so and wondering if they would ever get a chance to play like they had done while he was undergoing the Neko-ken training. It wasn't very often that she got a chance to run around in her full cat mode with a guy who was playing just as hard. Gar had disapproved, but that seemed to be kind of normal with him lately and she couldn't figure how why. He had never disapproved of humans before and had lots of them as friends, hell he even had a girlfriend that was human, so she figured that he was being over protective of her. He had been like that for years, still there had to be some way to make him stop harassing everyone that got near her.  
  
The only one he approved of was Tirga and she just couldn't really see herself with him anymore. She had gotten over her crush on the guy after all this time and would have thought that he would be happy about it. Instead he was complaining about her tastes in men and constantly tried to make sure she never had a chance to see anyone while he was around. His action were beginning to worry her, but she had no clue how to deal with him when he was like this, it just didn't make any sense to her. Though he had kept his thoughts to himself for the most part, he still tended to over react every time she even looked at a guy unless it was Tirga, tracking them down and silently threatening them until they went away. Could there have been something about Tirga that he was trying to teach her? Something that she hadn't seen along with his hedonistic and womanizing ways? She wasn't sure, but she did know that a crush could only last so long without the other party giving something in return and she was tired of finding about how Tirga had taken this girl to bed or seduced some cute married woman while the husband was drunk at the bar.  
  
She sighed and sat back to look around again and blinked as some guy in a cloak came through the door. It was instantly apparent that he was a werecat of some kind from the tail peaking out from underneath the cloak. He was wearing a large pack and carried himself with the skill of a beginning level fighter, concentrating on his steps and cautiously scanning the room way later than he should have to avoid a fight. Then the hood stopped and looked in her direction, with a little hop he headed in her direction and raised his arm as he moved, waving at her. "Hi Sheila!"  
  
"Raphiel?!" She gasped as she heard the voice. "What in the world are you wearing that outfit for?"  
  
"Me and Onoli just got back from a patrol, he asked me to step in here and get us some food while he checked in at the compound." Raphiel said as he happily flipped his hood off to reveal his werecheetah features.  
  
Sheila jumped up and hugged him for a second, she hadn't seen Raphiel Ray in some time. After the last Tournament of Arms he had gone to a special school that the Council of the Edge Guard used to make sure all their agents knew the same information and could work together. He had just returned a few days ago and she had forgotten all about it after she decided to invite Ranma here. She looked him over and nodded to herself, before he had gone to the Edge Guard school he had been kind of thin and scrawny, but over the last few months he had filled out with a bit of muscle. Though not enough to really make a difference, it still gave him a different, meaner look. He looked like all the werecheetah pictures she had seen in books and heard about in stories, thin and lanky to better access their incredible speed. The school he had been sent to tended to be more about information than actual training though, sure they taught how to use a certain weapon, but they usually left it up to the various Edge Guard group that sponsored them to finish their physical training so that the teams could mesh better over time.  
  
From the looks of things he had been quite busy so far and now that he was back with them he was going on simple missions with Onoli and Gar whenever they had a chance to take him. They would slowly bring him into the group over the next few months as they learned to work with him and make sure he knew how to protect himself in a fight. He had one of the oddest histories she'd heard in a while, supposedly he wasn't exactly a werecheetah, but a kind of super complex golem that a girl named Tanya had created to get her revenge on Britanny for stealing Stripe from her. Ruining her chances of rising to the position of Queen and gaining even stronger powers as a priestess of their people. Brianna had managed to get him reconstructed the last time she was here and they had been looking after him ever since.  
  
"How was the patrol?"   
  
"It was a lot of fun, we ran through the forests at the edge of the grassy plane just outside the city and stopped several of those bandits from harassing people. They weren't very nice though and we had to fight them, a few didn't like that and had to be put down." Raphiel said and waved for Phil to come over and take his order.  
  
"You came in with Onoli? He's been pretty busy lately and hasn't been around to much." Sheila said.  
  
"I know, he's been trying to master this new power of his that he gained from that thing he caries around to prove he's the Edge Guard leader."  
  
"Master a new power? That wouldn't happen to be 'Rain' would it?" Sheila asked, she had seen that power used once and didn't want to see it again if she could help it. It had taken Onoli weeks to recover from using that one time and they had wondered if he had pushed himself to far even then.  
  
"Yeah, that's the one, he has me guard him while he meditates on it and tries to control the awesome power it creates. I've never seen anything like it in my life, how he can wield something that powerful and not lose control is a total mystery. He said he's taking in steps, only using a tiny bit of power each time he does. The Mage Council advised him to take his time since he didn't need to know it right away." Raphiel said as Phil came back up.  
  
"Hello Raph, it's been a long time since I last saw you. I thought you moved on to another city to help out or something." Phil said as he came up. "What can I get you?"  
  
"I need two bowls of soup to go, Onoli wanted me to pick him up supper for him. I'll bring the bowls back in the morning."   
  
"Sure, let me go and get them made up. That will be two gold pieces, I'll give you back one of them in the morning when you bring back the bowls. If you weren't Edge Guard I wouldn't let you do it at all, but in this case I'm willing to compromise."  
  
"Thanks!" Raphiel said, handing the money over without a second thought.  
  
Sheila rolled her eyes, Raphiel was still a total moron when it came to money it seemed, she would have to do something about that. "Thanks for the 'favor' Phil, I'll make sure he has them back here tonight so you don't have to take his money like that." She said as she snatched one of the coins back and handed it to Raphiel.  
  
"Can't blame me for trying." Phil said as he headed for the kitchen and his never ending quest for more soup.  
  
"So what else have you been doing with your time Raphiel?"  
  
"Oh lots of things, I've been training how to fight with a couple of small hand held sticks. They are about two foot long and have a handle sticking out the side about three quarters of the way along the side for me to hold onto, for better control. Onoli called them War Sticks when we were training, they can do the most amazing things."  
  
"War Sticks? How about an elemental attack like the rest of use?"  
  
"We haven't gotten that far just yet, but right now the Council doesn't know if I can use elemental or magical attacks because of what I am." Raphiel said with a shrug.   
  
"Well you were constructed under special circumstances, so I think you might be able to and if not now, we can always go to another golem maker and have them give you the ability." Sheila said.  
  
"I wanted to try on my own first, that's why I've been doing all this training, to see if I really was alive and able to even learn new things."  
  
"You'll get there." Sheila said as Phil came back with couple of covered bowls of soup.  
  
"Here you go Raph, anything else?"   
  
"Nope, I got it." He said and took the food as he stood up. "I'm heading back to the to the training barracks, would you like to come with me?" Raphiel asked.  
  
"No thanks, Raphiel, I'll be back there here in a little while though. I want to finish eating first" Sheila said, he nodded and waved good by as he left.  
  
"That boy is still totally clueless about most everything." Phil said.  
  
"It doesn't help that you just tried to rip him off Phil."  
  
"Ah, I wasn't going to take the money like most everyone else would have, but I wouldn't have refused it either."   
  
"I'm going to have to talk to him about that."   
  
"Don't take to long, he isn't to far away from going into is first rut." Phil said mildly and Sheila blushed a solid red.  
  
"How can you say that out loud!" She yelled and tried to swat at him, but he ducked with a laugh and headed back to the kitchen before she could get him. Raphiel didn't keep the fact that he was a golem a secret, but he didn't tell just anybody about it either so there were only a few people that knew about him. The leading clan of the Retreat had been more than a little disappointed when they were informed, but since the fake werecheetah was capable of producing children under the right circumstances, they were thinking of trying to find a way to make Britanny have a couple of children with him.  
  
So far she had no clue about what those plans might be, but she did know that they were hoping that any offspring produced from her relationship with that outsider would be more werecheetah than alien. So far they had kept quiet on the subject because he was basically a werecat anyway, with a few other little differences that didn't matter. That, and Dr. Diggers wouldn't have approved of their actions if they forced anything. Sheila had thought of telling Britanny about them, but decided that so long as they didn't actually try to kidnap her out of her bed and force her to do the deed with Raphiel she wouldn't have to worry about it. Doing such a thing might actually restart the wars all over again and they wanted to keep that from happening at all costs, even the extinction of a whole clan. Anyone that lived in the Retreat had to live in peace and never fight with any of the other clans that lived there.   
  
There was a gate to the Retreat here at Seer's Hamlet and it was their job as Edge Guard to see that no one ever got a chance to invade the place or harm any of the people that lived there. She was just happy that the place didn't really have anything of value except lots of farm land and a couple of mountain towns where some of the more reclusive tribes had isolated themselves. If it had been possible to find gold or magic anywhere within the Retreat there would have been some evil minded moron trying to invade the place on a weekly basis with some kind of get rich scheme and driving her mad with the constant battle. One could find any kind of were animal there, but three of the main ones had never had a chance to go there. There were even rumored to be Werehounds deep in the mountains, hiding from the rest of the clans that resided there. The Werehounds were the first Werecreatures ever created, and the biggest failure as well. The things had been like dog shaped humans in comparison to strength and power. The werewolves had been next, using a currently extinct form of wolf to make them into a breed that was a hundred times better than the Hounds.  
  
The Werewolves, as the most aggressive, had been at war with the werecheetahs for centuries as well. Eventually both sides had gotten tired of all the fighting and tried one last time to live in peace before they annihilated each other. Surprisingly enough both sides had wanted this for the most part, they had been the last two clans left that hadn't gone to the Retreat. It was the only way to get permission from the other clans to enter the Retreat, but on the day both tribes were to meet up and go to the Retreat they had been betrayed and slaughtered almost totally. One of the werewolves had made a deal with an evil power in exchange for total loyalty and death of the werecheetahs and his own people, to this day that werewolf's name was more of a curse than anything else. All but one of the werecheetahs had been killed and the only survivor, Britanny Diggers, only did so because she was rescued bye Dr. Diggers.   
  
A few of the werewolves survived and they went into hiding to rebuild their race, but only a couple of females had survived so it was a very slow process. Even worse was the fact that those very same actions had condemned werewolves in the eyes of clans and nearly ruined their chances of ever entering the Retreat again. It had only been recently that the full truth of the final battle of the two clans had been discovered and the werewolves cleared of the bad reputation they had earned because of that maniac. Now that the werewolves were coming back from near extinction the leaders of the tribal clans had been turning their eye towards the Earth Realm and Britanny.  
  
They had also noticed something when they did so, the third missing clan, one that had earned itself a reputation as assassins and murders, they had been more than a little surprised that they survived and prospered in the Earth Real where magic was so hard to come by and they didn't know what to think of it. The wererats were led by some of the most corrupt and evil minds they had ever seen, using torture to enforce their rules and to put each of their members through training that would have killed all but the strongest fighters. They didn't even breed for love or family, they bred for cunning and strength and arranged matters to suit their needs. Tracking them was very hard to do, but a rare few had managed to make themselves noticeable enough to the right people. Lydia McKraken, Moisha Rich, and Romeo Ellis were now listed as three confirmed wererats, their very existence had taken the wererats off the extinction list.  
  
They all lived in the Earth realm so she had never had a chance meet any of them either, in battle or in person, and didn't know if they even knew how to get to Jade. As a member of the Edge Guard she had been informed of all this, but the wererat's survival had to be kept a closely guarded secret from certain people or certain clans would have found a way to Earth and slaughter them from existence. At the moment even Raphiel didn't know of them and it would be some time before he ever was, the guy couldn't lie to save his fur. Sitting back in her chair she sighed and started to finish off her fruit and tried to think about what the next couple of days would be like, she didn't want to think about all the secret crap she knew about. So she focused on her new favorite subject, Ranma, he would be there in the morning and she wanted to make a good first impression, but at the moment she was too excited to go to sleep and it was still a few hours yet before she even had to.  
  
Getting up from the table she picked up her dishes and stacked them up neatly so that Phil could pick up and take back to the kitchen, left a few coppers for him, and headed out the door. She walked out into the torch lit night without really paying attention to what was around her, moving from one area of light to a thick blanket of darkness that existed between torches. She needed to get back to her room and see what time she was on the fire watch, they all took turns guarding the compound during the night, giving each of them two hours of guard duty. She had asked for the last one so she would have a couple of hours to get ready for Ranma, after doing a quick run around the place, but Onoli hadn't know if he could do that or not before he left this morning. When Raphiel had arrived back a few days ago he hadn't really been expected back for a couple more weeks, but with him here to cover more of the night she might just get what she wanted after all.  
  
She was just entering the final street that led to the large estate that made up most of the Edge Guard's compound when she heard a clink of metal in the darkness around her and stopped in her tracks. Her danger sense was telling her that something was wrong, but whoever it was they were very well concealed and nearly impossible to detect. As a member of the Edge Guard she had certain enemies, mostly bandits, but there were a few big league characters she had to worry about and being in Seer's Hamlet didn't mean she was instantly protected from them either. It was easy enough to get around the spells the Mage Council had set up to keep certain kinds of people out and if one knew enough magic and had the power the could go anywhere they wanted too. She looked into the shadows and sniffed the air, whoever was out there had an odd smell that she couldn't place, but it was really familiar. Then the shadows moved and she backed up a couple of steps in surprise as six undead knights moved out of the dark shadows in an attempt to capture her by surprise.   
  
"Damn it, these things are a pain in the ass and there isn't even anyone around to help me out." She hissed to herself and held out her hand to call her elemental scimitar to her hand.   
  
Swinging the sword in a sweeping cut she sent a wave of ice cold energy right into the center of the group and got one of them, but by that time all of them were on her. Swinging swords with the same skill that they had possessed when they were alive, following familiar patterns and slowly surrounding her as she tried to block them as best she could. She didn't even have time to think who might have sent them, all she could do was slowly move back and try to break them up with a well placed shot here and there. With a duck and roll she gained herself a couple of seconds and lashed out with her elemental attack once more.  
  
"Ice Fang!"  
  
Her sword swung out and down, sending a wave of Ice at her target and encasing him in a large block of ice and stopping him cold. The swing of her sword was just like she had practiced and allowed her to get her guard back up fast enough to block an attack from one of the four remaining undead Knights, with a ring of steel that staggered her back a couple of steps they came at her from different directions and started to get past her guard. This didn't look good, she wasn't used to working alone in a fight, there was usually someone there to help her out when she was going against odds like this, but it wouldn't be the first this had happened either and she could take care of herself. Her brother Gar would have been able to over power them and shatter them with his Partisan Spear, but she didn't have is overpowering strength. It was getting to the point that she would be forced to fight as a human, it had all her extra physical strength and dexterity, but none of the healing ability and wounds taken while she was like that took twice as long to heal as they should have when she changed back. If they had been alive in anyway her ice attacks might have had more effect too, but they were undead and one didn't really get any colder than that.  
  
"Damn it!" She yelled as one of the sliced open the side of her arm and forced her to jump back several feet.   
  
As the wound slowly knitted back together she breathed a sigh of relief for a second and prepared to encase a third one in ice. Then she saw the shadow moving on the roof behind the Undead Knights, it was obviously a living being from the way it moved, but she didn't have time to think about who it might have been as the attacks resumed and took all she had to keep them at bay. Whoever had sent these things certainly knew hot to raise the dead better than most, they were a lot stronger than the regular run of the mill undead things she had encountered in the past. They worked as team, something she had never seen before. Screaming her attack phrase she sent another wave of ice at the group and managed to snare a fourth one right as the others ones managed to catch her across the leg and send her to the ground with a cry of shock.  
  
The three remaining knights turned on her and as one raised their swords, she prepared to do a quick roll out of the way and transform into her human form as a last resort. Then a shadow descended from a nearby roof and she remembered the guy she had seen up there a few seconds before. She only had a glimpse of a large man with wavy black hair and a sword attacking them from behind and shattering two of them into their component pieces before the third even knew what hit him and joined them a half second later. Clutching her leg, Sheila dragged herself to her feet and waited for the wound to close up enough for her to stand on it a little before turning to the guy.  
  
"Well hello again, are you alright?" He asked.  
  
"Um...hello, you're that that guy who was eating at the same place I was at little while ago, right?"  
  
"I'm Ashaton Chaos, I'm just traveling through searching for something. I stopped by the bar to grab a bite to eat and left a little while after you did, then I heard the battle going on a little ways away from where I was and decided to see what was going on. Didn't expect to see Undead Knights though, these things can be nasty if you're not prepared for them."  
  
"They ambushed me and caught me mostly by surprise, didn't have time to do much more than defend myself."  
  
Ashaton nodded. "If you hit them just right from the back they will just fall apart and loose the magic that keeps them going. It has something to do with the fact that the armor is empty except for the undead spiritual energy."  
  
"I'll remember that." Sheila said with a grin. "I'm Sheila."  
  
"Hello Sheila, so where are you going from here? I'll escort you if you want."  
  
"Just down the block here, I have to report these things to Onoli so we can get prepared for them if they come back."  
  
"Alright." Ashaton said. "Lead the way."  
  
A couple of minutes later they approached the Edge Guard compound, a large building set at the edge of the town where they could all live and practice in relative peace. The outer grounds allowed them a bit of space to practice outside in any of their werecat forms along with a dojo set off to the side where they could practice weapons and hand to hand combat when it was needed. It had a set of stairs that led up to a walk way that went clear around the inside of the building and allowed anyone to watch a fight from the second level and help out with training. The main building was just off to the side and connected to the Dojo, this was where they all had a room of their own to sleep in, though it was called a barracks, it was more like a home with all the bells and whistles. They had close connections to the Mage Council and the Retreat so they were able to set things up that few other places had access to.  
  
"It's impressive." Ashaton said as he looked the place over.  
  
"It's been used by the Edge Guard for the last couple of Generations, some lady left it to the City Council when she died and they gave it to the original Edge Guard that inhabited the place. It's got everything you could think of. Though we have improved upon it over the last few years, making it more user friendly and all that."  
  
"Well, you should be safe from here Sheila, I'll take my leave, but I think we will meet again." Ashaton said. "I need to continue my search for a magical item I'm looking for."  
  
"No problem and thanks again for helping me out, see you around." Sheila said and waved as he walked off.   
  
She headed inside smiling happily and went off to look for Onoli, but she didn't pay as much attention to her surroundings as should have or she might have spotted the figure hiding in the dark shadows of the building. He watched her for a second before turning to watch Ashaton walk off and frowned. Turning, he walked back into the shadows and vanished from sight completely. He reappeared a few seconds later running across the property at high speed, shifting into full cat form in mid step and heading into the woods outside of Seer's Hamlet. There was a barely visible aura of red energy around him that made all the animals in his path get out of his was as fast as they could, but he ignored them as he ran, he had other things to think about.   
  
**********  
  
Dwarves were a funny race of beings, they loved to live underground and dig through the rock like moles to find rare metals, gems, and other rare and hard to find items. They have been doing this for centuries and rarely came to the surface for anything except some supplies or plants that they might need. This is how things have always been, but a rare few would look to the surface and wonder what was out there, instead of chipping away at rock they would day dream about adventure and far off places that they barely knew existed. These rare few, one out of every hundred dwarves were the ones that people would see wandering through towns, hacking down a deer by taking its knees out with a large battle axe and a feral glint in their eye. There have been many wanderers through out the centuries, most have never been heard from again and their mothers would morn their deaths in private.  
  
A rare few though went on to be famous, having names that any race with even a spark of intelligence had heard of. These were the fighters that could use any weapon, take on any foe, and win at any cost. One such fighter had been born in these modern times, a woman of all things, and a very powerful fighter. She was the perfect balance of speed, power, and skill that could match all but one fighter in a fair fight and win. Near a dwarven mine, deep in the mountains half a continent away from Seer's Hamlet there was a flash of light from a teleportation spell. A human female appeared at the base of a mountain wearing a thick white cloak and a large black and green spear like weapon on her back.   
  
She couldn't get any closer to the mountain than this due to the fact that unless it was a magical weapon of some kind, most magic didn't work within a dwarven hall. There was a trail in front of her that she would have to climb just to reach the first dwarven check point and enter the midway point of the mine. She would have given up her very expensive armor if she could have been anywhere else, but this was where the G'nolga was being kept after her actions at the last Tournament of Arms. One of the most dangerous female weapon masters on the planet and the one that she had been ordered to free from her imprisonment at all costs. They weren't friends by a long shot, G'nolga hated everybody but other dwarves, but they weren't exactly enemies either. Getting her free from within the mine was going to be very tricky and something a dwarf should have been sent to do, no her.  
  
Teeth chattering, Hanza started up the mountain, twisting her ring of invisibility as she passed under a tree so that the guards that were observing her would lose track of her. Luckily there wasn't much snow on the ground yet or using the ring would have been completely useless. There was nothing more dangerous than sneaking into a dwarven strong hold while leaving foot prints in the snow that could be followed right to you. Clutching her cloak around her, she was able to make the first check point within a few minutes and sneak up on them from behind a set of rocks. Peaking around edge of the boulders she saw the arched entrance that the dwarves had carved out to make all visitors go through before they entered the mines. She spotted three dwarves talking among themselves, two males and a girl. From the looks of things they hadn't noticed her come up the mountain before she activated the ring and smirked, they were supposed to be more observant than this. They were talking in dwarvish though so she didn't know what they were saying. Hopefully it wasn't anything along the lines of 'does that idiot human think were this stupid?' or 'Hey, do you smell perfume?'  
  
When they seemed to be focused more on each other than on guarding the door, she snuck by them and headed through the first check point. She was amazed that she had gotten through at all, but that only proved that the dwarves weren't really expecting someone to break out their special prisoner. Then again, why would they even need to? After G'nolga dishonored herself in the way she did and brought shame to all the dwarves that had looked up to her skill and power nobody had been exactly pleased with the way she has treated Julia Brigand Diggers. Hanza really didn't want her around either, but Rook was paying quite a lot of money, so who was she to complain about what he wanted? Still, this had better come with a bonus or there was going to be hell to pay. G'nolga's arrogance had cost her more than one fight as well, but her skill would be needed if Rook's plan was to succeed. Continuing forward she activated her dwarven made armor just as she was entering the first room of this level. It was the meeting hall about half full of Dwarves, some wandering around, some eating, and even more drinking and singing about gold. This was her first main challenge to pass, once past this getting to where she wanted to go would be easy.  
  
Getting through all that with her invisibility ring would be easy enough, but she wondered if there might be some kind of alarm she wasn't aware of. The Dwarves were more than likely going to rough her up and toss her out in the snow naked if they did catch her so she had to be very careful until she made her way to G'nolga. Slowly stepping out on the floor she tried to keep at least fifteen feet from any dwarf even if meant she had to stop and wait for a few seconds. It was slow nerve wracking work that took her over half an hour to reach the other end of the hall with no one looking in her direction or making a comment about perfume. She was really going to have to do something about the weird way she had been acting lately, wearing lip stick and perfume really wasn't what she thought about the potion that had turned her into this. She just got these weird urges and didn't seem to be able to resist them when she was half asleep.  
  
This hall was what most people saw when they visited this place, rarely did anyone ever get to go beyond this point. Hanza was amazed at how lax security was, it was making her nervous and just little bit edgy as she made her way across the long hall. Sure she was invisible, but one of them must have noticed something by now. Carefully moving around a table where three dwarves were drinking from large mugs of beer, she could smell the stuff even from a few feet away. He mouth watered, it had been over a year now since last had a chance to drink anything like beer. He new body didn't handle the stuff all that well and when she was drunk she tended to do really stupid things. When she had been a man it hadn't mattered, but that potion had messed up the way his mind worked and given her the alcohol tolerance of a squirrel. Sure it was a subtle difference, but it was the major difference between men and women.  
  
A few minutes later she passed through the large door that led down into the mine itself and no one seemed to have seen her yet. Smirking, she moved slowly down the hall and tried to remember the way that the scrying spell had indicated. This mine was pretty deep, but she knew where she wanted to go, basically, so about an hour later she reached the isolated level where dwarves that had committed a criminal act were held until they were either killed or exiled. Rumors above ground had said that a good number of people were calling for G'nolga to be executed for what she had done to Julia Brigand Diggers, the current Armsmaster of Jade. A position that G'nolga had been trying to achieve for over two hundred years now, the two had been enemies from the moment they met and things had degraded from there. They had fought several times over the years, but G'nolga had never stooped so low as to cheat during their fights. It hadn't been until this last Tournament of Arms that, after shaming Julia in public before hundreds of people, they had fought a second battle that had left both of them in bandages by the time they were done.  
  
This time G'nolga didn't have the means to make Julia back down and take a beating like she had before. They had met in the final match at the Tournament at Arms and battled for over three hours before Julia managed to use a special sleeper hold on G'nolga and nearly win the match. Julia would have won right then and there, but G'nolga had managed to come across special magical help that was able, within the magic nullifying stadium, to increase her strength by a factor of three. By sacrificing her honor for the win, she was able to get the upper hand on Julia and spent several minutes kicking the crap out of her in front of over ten thousand screaming people. No matter how much punishment Julia took from the super powered G'nolga, she had refused to stay down no matter how much pain she was in and this had pissed off G'nolga even more.   
  
The plan had eventually been disrupted, G'nolga lost her strength, and she was caught cheating by Julia when she realized what was going on and the officials who ran the Tournament of Arms. She was instantly disqualified and taken into dwarven custody and brought here until her trial could be taken care of. Personal dishonor is one thing, but G'nolga's plan had dishonored the dwarven nation itself with such a public defeat. She had even gone so far as to try and attack Julia from behind after the match had been officially awarded to Julia. Rook was hoping that she would be bitter enough to join with him once more for a chance to gain her honor back. Hanza really doubted that was the full story, but Rook had turned sneaky after this last defeat at the hands Sheila, the embarrassment must have driven him over the deep end in her opinion. She wasn't quite sure what the Ghost Knight had in mind, but whatever it was things should be quite interesting for a while.  
  
Slipping into the prison was child's play, most of the guards were asleep this late at night and made her job a whole lot easier to do. Most dwarves were pretty law abiding, they had better things to do than steal things from other people. They kept this prison for those dwarves that refused to work, those who got into a fight that got out of hand, and those like G'nolga who had darkened the dwarven reputation. She was kind of like a political prisoner instead of a criminal one, but Hanza didn't really care about that either, all she wanted to do was find her and give her Rook's message. Checking the cells, she found that they were large enough to hold several prisoners, there were four prisoners in this first room, chained to the walls and looked like someone had beat them to within an inch of their lives. It kind of explained why dwarves rarely committed a crime while within the mine, but there was always someone willing to try it seemed.   
  
The door to the cell was locked of course, but she was able to look inside and see the chained up form of G'nolga. She was in even worse shape than the ones hanging on the wall in the other cell. She was barely recognizable, but that didn't matter, a little time at a clinic or with a potion of healing and she would be healed up enough to walk at least. Most of her clothing was in shreds and hanging off her body, welts along her arms and legs were enough to prove that she had been whipped in some way. She would have to see her back to have a better idea of the damage. Moving carefully, she picked the lock and slipped through, closing the door behind her as she walked over to G'nolga. Dropping the invisibility spell, she examined G'nolga's wounds and winced a little. Someone had made a mess of her back alright, she wasn't surprised that even she was unconscious.   
  
The pain must have been indescribable, but she stepped back as G'nolga groaned and for the first time Hanza realized that someone had shaved the dwarven female completely bald. G'nolga's long ground length ponytail had been almost as recognizable as her name and now it was completely gone. She looked so different without her hair, but that would always grow back with a bit of time or magic. G'nolga raised her head slowly and looked up a Hanza with a bit of surprise, but that was all the energy she had left and she slumped back down a few seconds later. Staying in an upright position only because she was chained to the wall, a couple of her wounds reopened and started to bleed as she hung there.   
  
"Hanza, what are you doing here? Haven't I been shamed enough?" G'nolga muttered.  
  
"Rook sent me to get you out of here." Hanza whispered.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"He needs your skills, his plan will not work as effectively as they should unless you're there to help out."  
  
"Hanza, this is my punishment. I can survive this, but if I leave, I will be exiled from my home for the rest of my life with orders to kill me on sight if I ever enter dwarven land again."  
  
"Rook will give you a chance to get your revenge on Julia, G'nolga, but you can't do that from within here."  
  
"Humph! I have had enough of Rook and his plans for quite some time. My defeat at the Tournament has taught me some very painful lessons Hanza, but I will overcome them and gain my people's trust back. Why do you think I have endured this kind of punishment for as long as I have?"  
  
"What will it accomplish you in the end G'nolga? Don't you want to fight again? From the looks of these wounds you will be lucky to fight any time soon, you can't even stand. Let me take you back to Rook and we can get you healed up."  
  
G'nolga raised up her head and looked Hanza in the eye with a bit of her old fire. "No! I will endure this and come out of it all the stronger! Now go before someone catches you."  
  
"Rook won't like that answer G'nolga." Hanza said in a hiss.  
  
"#$%& Rook! This is more important than revenge on someone that I have wronged so badly! I will not go with you!"   
  
"I'm sorry to hear you say that G'nolga, but Rook said you were to come weather you wanted to or not and being chained to a wall like that makes this so much easier for me." Hanza said as she reached into her cloak and pulled out the small amulet that Rook had acquired the day before. She placed the amulet over G'nolga's head, said a magic word, and smirked as it started to glow, slowly spreading out over the girl's body as she struggled weakly.  
  
"FREEZE RIGHT THERE GIRL! If'n I understand your conversation right, you are going to force G'nolga to come with you against her will?" Said a male dwarf as he stepped out of the shadows off to the right, he was holding a crossbow with a multi shot magazine of arrows. They were a rare improvement on the crossbow design that only dwarves used.   
  
"Now where did you come from?" Hanza asked mildly as she swung the green spear off her back.  
  
"That be none of your concern human, you are under arrest for invading the hall and speaking with a forbidden prisoner. Now take that thing of G'nolga now before I'm forced to hole you through the eyes."  
  
"You're not that good dwarf, I can tell just from the way your legs are positioned and the heft of that crossbow."  
  
Once the glow covered all of G'nolga's body she started to convulse and twitch, but Hanza ignored it as she concentrated on the male dwarf in front of her. "Who are you, so I know who I'm beating up."  
  
"Tavis Stoneslicer." The dwarf spit out, raised his crossbow and fired.  
  
Laughing, Hanza stepped out of the way and knocked the bolt out of the air with her staff with a smirk. Clenching her fist, she activated the haste spell and blurred, catching the dwarf off guard with her speed. They always reacted badly to magic, so a couple of blows later she tossed the battered body against the far wall and watched as it slid down and collapsed on the floor. Turning back to G'nolga, she saw that the amulet had done it's job perfectly, the dwarven fighter was staring around her with a blank look on her face and slumped over and gasping for air. Hanza nodded to herself as she pulled a gem out of her gauntlet and held it in her hand as she grasped G'nolga's arm. They vanished in a flash of light that could be seen several room away. The empty chains clanged against the wall as they suddenly had nothing to support.  
  
They reappeared in Rook's throne room, he was sitting there reading a scroll by torch light as a couple of Ghost Knights spotted her, stepped forward, and began to pull their swords to dispose of the sudden intruder. Hanza turned to Rook as she sat the battered G'nolga on the floor and snarled. "I got her for you Rook, but I had to use the amulet like you said."  
  
"Knights, stand down." Rook barked to stop the Ghost Knights from killing Hanza and G'nolga.  
  
"Did anyone see you?"  
  
"No." Hanza lied, that one guard must have been out cold when they left so he couldn't have seen much.  
  
"Excellent, then we can use poor G'nolga anyway we want so long as the amulet stays around her neck." Rook said as he stood up and wandered over to look at the catatonic G'nolga. "I have a feeling that the next few days should be filled with lots of fighting and blood. This is going to be a lot of fun and getting my revenge will make it all worth while, those Edge Guard have pushed me to far this time"  
  
"Um, whatever you say." Hanza muttered, Rook had been acting strange lately, but she couldn't put it down to any one thing.  
  
**********  
  
[Earth]  
  
Hefting his back pack, Ranma made sure he had everything he would need and headed downstairs. He would be leaving for Jade here in a few minutes, with Dr. Diggers and Master Julia out of the house he would be taking Gina's gate to Jade. The last few hours had been a little hectic, but after a bit of thought he had returned Gina's bracers to her and asked to have them fixed up a bit to make them safer. He hadn't liked it, but he didn't want his arms blown off if he got into a fight and had to use them to block an attack of some kind and accidentally set them off. At first she had been irritated in him, but this was one area where he would not budge and she had finally decided to do as he asked. She was supposed to be returning them before he left, so maybe he would get away with just the bracers with no weird technology he didn't understand.   
  
Entering the lower level of the lab complex, he made his way over to the room Gina had told him about and entered the door. The room was smaller than she usually built, but there was still enough for a work desk, some equipment, and a small alcove off to the side that had some kind of silver plate built into the floor and ceiling. Gina and Brianna were tinkering with the electronics of the bracers with a pair of tiny tools. There was a red and black Peebo sitting on the desk watching them carefully. It turned to look at him for a second, arched a mechanical eyebrow for a second before turning back to finish watching the girls. They looked up as he stopped in front of the table and sat his pack down.  
  
"So how is it working now?" He asked.  
  
"Sorry about yesterday, I got a little overzealous and gave you something dangerous without thinking about the consequences. I did this with Brit once and she took weeks to forgive me and even to this day has a little distrust of my inventions. I'll be more careful next time I give you something." Gina said. "I'm glad you insisted I work on this a little more, it was really unstable and probably wouldn't have lasted too many battles. I forgot to take into account your skills and how far you can go beyond normal human limits."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yeah, I have removed the mini Beta Generator I installed as a power source and replaced it with one of my normal ones. Though this will reduced the amount of items you can carry with you."  
  
"That's okay, I'm used to lugging my pack around everywhere I go so this won't be any different."  
  
Gina nodded as she indicated the Peebo and looked over at Brianna.  
  
"This is BBS 0001, I've been building the model for the last couple of months and would like you to take him along with you on your trip as a kind of test run." Brianna said.   
  
"What does he do?" Ranma asked as he looked the little bomb over.  
  
"There is a relay chip in your bracer that will work as it's brain while on Jade, and will follow any order you give it. I installed several weapons to give you a hand, the normal explosive mode that should be strong enough to knock out anything up to a rock troll and seriously hurt, but not kill a human. It also has laser beams that can fire out of its eyes and cut through metal given enough time, a memory card full of information on Jade and it's history in case you need it. This also includes most of what we know about Jade right now, town layouts, maps, and other little things that might come in handy once you're over there. He should fit right into your pack with no problem."  
  
"What do I do with it?" Ranma asked as he looked the thing over, knowing Brianna like he did, he wondered just how safe this thing was. It seemed she could be as bad as Gina at times.  
  
"What do I look like? A pet? I'm a Bit Bomb Special 0001 the only one of my kind and I can kick your ass faster than you can blink." BBS 0001 snapped as it rolled forward on the table and glared at him, its eyes glowing red.  
  
Brianna giggled. "I tried to give it a personality to make you two more compatible."  
  
"I see." He said dryly.  
  
"&%$# you!" BBS 0001 said with a huff and fired a small laser shot into Ranma's hand just to make his point.  
  
"Ow! Why you little..." Ranma growled down at the little pest.  
  
Gina picked up a device off the table and finished closing up the access ports to the bracers as the last down load of information was finishing. She ran a quick check to make sure they were working right before handing to Ranma. "There we go, all done, that weapon was taken out and now all they can do is store small items like books, food, money, and weapons. The money will be stored in a slightly bigger space than the others though, for some reason it is hard not to get your hands on gold over on Jade and the Edge Guard will pay you for this hunt by giving you a bit of gold for each monster you kill."  
  
"Kill? Oh yeah, you mentioned something about that yesterday. Still..."  
  
"You idiot! Jade is a lot more primitive than this world, they still run from things in the night and use outhouses!" BBS 0001 snapped. "A hunt it something they organized every six months or so to clear out forests and valleys of rampaging monsters, you know those things that kill you while you are asleep?"   
  
"If you don't start acting a little better I'm going to smash you." Ranma said as he put the bracers back on and gave them a little shake, they felt different this time. He hadn't noticed it when he first put them on, but there had been a kind of power surge from the first design. That surge just wasn't present with these and it made them feel weird. He shrugged it off and turned to Gina when he thought of another question. "Hey, will these mess with my spell casting practice, Dr. Diggers said that metal tends to disrupt most spells."  
  
"No, these are more of an organic metal than a forged metal, think of the stuff the T-1000 was made out of in the second Terminator movie."  
  
"What the heck is a Terminator?"  
  
BBS 0001 Facefaulted off the table. "Master Brianna, I must protest, this human is an idiot, I can not work with him!"   
  
"If you don't I'll make you my next target for weapons practice with the other Peebos." Brianna said and pointed at one of the Peebo-TIE's hovering around the ceiling of the room. It zoomed down and hovered over Brianna's head, looking cute and mean at the same time, quite a feat for a flying piece of metal.  
  
BBS 0001 moved to hide behind Ranma's legs and peaked out from behind a foot. "HEHEHEHE no need to go quite that far."  
  
"Just enjoy yourself on the trip and follow your orders." Brianna snapped, even she was beginning to think it was time to give her random personality coding program a little tweak, this was the first bad mouthed Peebo she had ever created.  
  
"Brianna I appreciate this thing, but what the heck am I supposed to with it?" Ranma said and felt a little guilty as the robot gave him a kind of puppy dog look.  
  
"He has several things he can do Ranma, you won't even have to worry about him all that much. BBS 0001 here will follow along behind you to make sure everything is working out, he won't get in the way and if you want you can carry him in your back pack. He has a mind of his own and will do certain things like protect you if you happen to need it, help guard your camp while you sleep and can even spy on other people if you want him to."  
  
With a sigh Ranma gave in, this was better than having a bomb strapped to his arms that could take out most of a city at least. "Alright, but really don't see what use I have for this thing. I can run almost as fast as a moving car if I want to, how will this thing keep up with me when I do that?"  
  
"You take me with you that's what!" BBS 0001 snapped. "Do you think I want to drive over miles and miles of grassland, forests, and swamps just to get to you? Think again! I'll be just fine in your back pack."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I had a feeling you were going to say that." Ranma said as he placed the thing in his pack. He was a bit surprised to see that it was heavier than expected, but it was about half the size of a soccer ball so it must have been full of some interesting bits at least. With that he shouldered his pack and looked over at Gina. "Now what?"  
  
She picked up a remote and walked over. "I'll open a portal Jade so you can get on our way. I installed a dimensional hook up into your bracer, but it's only good for a few minutes every day so try not to over use it. I'll have a better one designed by the time you come back in a week or so."  
  
"Alright."  
  
Gina tapped a button on the control and they vanished in a flare of light and reappeared in the same spot that they had the last time they were here. Ranma looked around and stepped out of the circle before turning back to Gina. "Thanks, give me a couple of weeks before you start to worry."  
  
"Okay Ranma, have fun and if things get real bad give me a call or try to find my mom and dad, they are around visiting some old friends in the area so they should be around there somewhere."  
  
"No problem, thanks for the ride."  
  
Grinning, Gina tapped the control again and vanished in another flare of light and for the first time in almost three months Ranma was on his own. He could recall the basic layout of the town from his previous visit, but as he looked around he realized that had no clue where the Edge Guard compound was located. It was so early in the morning that there weren't any people out to ask for directions either, that meant that he was going to have to wander around and see if he might find it randomly. Shrugging, he picked a random direction and started walking along the torch lit streets. He hadn't noticed on his last visit, but the torches were the type that never stopped burning or ran out of fuel, then he realized that they were illusions of fire and not the real thing at all. Even sticking his hand in one didn't burn him in anyway, he thought it was amazing the way they still gave off light though. It was cool.  
  
"Hey! Idiot! Let me out of this bag now, it stinks!" BBS 0001 yelled.  
  
"Oh yeah, I forgot about you." Ranma muttered, he'd spaced out his bad tempered company the instant he set foot here. Shrugging off his pack he dug the thing out and sat it down. It tested out its wheels by spinning in circles a few times before stopping to look at him with the evil eye.  
  
"What the hell are you doing!"  
  
"Looking for the Edge Guard compound of course."  
  
"What, are you and idiot? You don't even know where the place is? Sigh, alright, but you better make up for this or I'll ditch you in the middle of nowhere." BSS 0001 growled as he looked around to get his bearings, sped over to a sign spun in circle a couple of times. "Follow me and I'll take you to the place before you're to late." BBS 0001 snapped as it started to lead him down the street.  
  
"How do you know where it is?"  
  
"I've got all kinds of information in my databanks that you might find helpful."   
  
"Alright, lead the way Spark."  
  
BSS 0001 rolled to a stop and turned, very slowly to look up at Ranma. "That was an insult, I knows and insult when I hears one."  
  
Ranma blinked.   
  
Two little ports in the thing's back opened up and two toy missiles rose up and swung around to aim at Ranma. "Take that back or I'll take you down a notch or two."  
  
"Um...listen Sparky, you either pick a name for me to call you or I'll keep making one up until you don't complain anymore and calling you BSS 0001 all the time is out of the question."  
  
"Hah!"  
  
"Take it on faith then Rolly Polly Olly."  
  
"AGHAAAAAAAA!!" A mini-missile fired, moving a lot faster than Ranma had expected, but his increased reflexes kicked in and he swatted it into the ground where it exploded out in a wave of force that nearly blew him off his feet.  
  
Ranma cursed himself as he dodged as best he could and skidded to a stop a few feet away. He had to stop thinking that all this technology was so useless and weak, Brianna had shown him several things that were more dangerous than he would have ever though possible. Her Peebos looked harmless enough on the surface, but when they really got going or were in packs they could damage or take out some pretty strong opponents. She had designed this one to follow him around for some reason, he had been around her long enough to know that wasn't the whole reason, but couldn't see what she had in mind for the little thing.  
  
"Well, are you going to stop it or do I have to get tough?" BSS 0001 snapped.  
  
"Pick a name." Ranma growled.  
  
"Fine, if it will make you shut up for a little while. Call me B!"  
  
"Bee? Sure."  
  
Another missile fired and blew up at Ranma's feet, two more popped up out of it's back and aimed a little higher up. "I said call me, B!"  
  
"B it is, B it is." Ranma yelled as he jumped up and down on one foot and tried to put his flaming shoe out.  
  
"That'll teach you mess with me." B said as it started to move again, this time at high speed.   
  
Ranma had to jog to keep up with it as it zig zagged it's way across town in an attempt to lose him, but didn't mind, he was having fun. On another level entirely, Ranma was beginning to like the little loud mouth machine and wondered what it would come up with next. He liked people that stood up for themselves and this thing was more than willing to dish out a little pain to do it, his kind of friend. Though there was no way he was going to tell it that, he would just keep pestering it until it wanted to fight some more. Then he blinked as he realized that they had just passed the same torch for the third time, the little loud mouth was leading him in circles instead of taking him toward the compound like he said he would. Then he smirked to himself and shrugged, it would have to lead him there eventually, so this little run wouldn't be all that hard even if his pack was heavier than hell. He would just have to find a way to motivate the thing into going where he wanted it to go.  
  
Pouring on the speed he caught up to the little loud mouthed thing as it raced along. "Alright B, I'll race you to the Edge Guard house."  
  
"Ha! Ten minutes ago you didn't even know where it was."  
  
"Well I figure we've run through every alley and side street in this town during that time, and have a pretty good idea where it is. I know where it is now and there isn't a thing you can do to prevent me from going there now except beat me there and you're to slow to do that!" Ranma taunted and raced ahead.  
  
"Wanna bet?!" B yelled, did quick right turn and headed for the edge of town at high speed and leaving Ranma in the dust, going the wrong directions.   
  
Ranma just grinned, bounced off a wall and followed after him at high speed.  
  
After a couple of minutes of running they passed through a grove of trees and Ranma followed the little robot into a rather large estate of some kind. It had several buildings spread out over property, a large house, a stable, what he though might be a dojo, and a two or three smaller buildings that seemed to have no purpose. There was a guard standing in front of the entrance to the house, he was dressed in what Ranma had come to recognize as the typical leathers of the city guard. He was glaring down at B, who was stopped by his foot, glaring up at the guy and giving him the evil eye. They turned to look at him when he walked up, though B just glared at him and opened the missile ports again, as if daring him to say something stupid. The guard stepped back from B and nodded at him. "Good morning sir, welcome the Edge Guard compound."  
  
"Good morning, I'm Ranma Saotome, I think I'm expected by Sheila."  
  
"Ranma?"  
  
"That's right." Ranma confirmed.  
  
"You're the only person I have on the list for this morning, just head on into the house, everyone should be getting up by now. Breakfast will be ready in about an hour or so."  
  
Nodding his thanks, Ranma moved past the guy and picked up B on his way in, it looked smug and arrogant though so he put it back in his pack closed the flap on it. "Bastard!"  
  
"Yeah, yeah."  
  
The room he entered was larger than he expected, it was big enough to hold a couple hundred people easily with a small portion set aside for the kitchen. There were several cooks moving about getting breakfast ready as a couple of the edge guard sat on couches near the fireplace on the far side of the room. He recognized them from when he had been a at Brod's Lookout during all that training, they had come and gone several times over that month. They had been allowing Sheila to stay with him during the stay by doing her patrols every now and then to give her a bit more free time. The black furred one saw him come in and waved him over when they noticed him looking around. He waved back and walked on over, setting his pack down at the end of the couch, it was heavy enough to make the floorboards groan a little as the weight settled. B said something, but he ignored it since the little loud mouth was muffled by the bag.  
  
"Hey guys, what's going on?"  
  
"We just got up a little while ago, are you here for that hunt that Sheila is leading later on?" Thropan asked as he sipped at some fruit juice.  
  
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, though she didn't tell me what that was exactly. What will we be hunting down anyway?"  
  
"Just some monsters for the most part, some of the creatures in the forest swamp have been getting a little full of themselves lately and there are some farms near there that will be in danger if we let them get any bigger."  
  
"Monsters? What kind are we talking about here?"   
  
"Mostly Bog Threshers, trolls, some shadows demons, and the usual wolves, snakes, and other regular nasties. You should be quite busy for the next few days, but the job pays well so long as you save something of the creature to prove that you killed it."  
  
"What kind of pay?" Ranma asked and instantly called himself a couple of choice names for letting a bit of greed enter into his voice. Some of the habits his father had taught him would die hard and agonizing deaths it seemed.  
  
"The bigger the monster the better the pay, some people get greedy though and try to make a quick fortune by taking on more than they should and end up dying because of it. Almost every year we hear about some guy that bit off more than he could chew and became some monster's Saturday night meal" Onoli said. "You just need to stick with your partner and things should be fine."  
  
"How many are going with us?"  
  
"Right now it's just you and Sheila, but whenever a hunt is organized others tend to sneak off and help out anyway, you know, to be 'good' citizens and all that. It is easy gold if you have any skills in magic or weapons, most of the Edge Guard would go with you, but we have something else we need to look into later on this morning. If Sheila hadn't organized this a few days ago, I wouldn't have let her go, but it was already scheduled and since it needs to be done I decided to let it proceed."  
  
"Sounds easy enough." Ranma muttered, though he wasn't looking forward to killing anything. This wouldn't be the first time he had to do something like this, though that had been a pack of wolves, a couch, and running through the swamp at high speed. The wolves had been hunting him, this was the same thing from the other direction so he figured it wouldn't be all that hard.  
  
Thropan nodded. "Sheila organized this one a few days ago so there aren't many people that know about it, but after you leave a bunch of locals might follow after you to make a quick buck so you might want to watch out what you fire at while wandering around in the swamp." Thropan said with a smirk and laughed a little  
  
"Oh, no problem there." Ranma said.  
  
"Ranma! You came!" Sheila yelled as she came down the stairs wearing her new outfit.  
  
It was with a bit of relief that Ranma noticed out of the corners of his eyes that he wasn't the only one gaping at Sheila in her form fitting black spandex and leather jacket outfit as she swayed down the stairs and smiled at him. He gulped a little and reminded himself that Brianna had shown him clothing that was a lot more revealing in that game so he was a bit more prepared for it, still, it was a bit hard not to react to an outfit like this since it drew his eyes to her toned body. Still, from the looks on the other's faces they had never seen her like this before, it must have been a real big divergence from what she normally wore. Shacking his head to clear it a little he smiled and nodded at her. "No problem, it sounds like fun and will be some great training in as well."  
  
"Oh I think Sheila has something a bit more high impact in mind." Thropan said with a laugh and winked at Sheila.  
  
"Huh?" Ranma said and turned to look back at the werepanther..  
  
"You jerk, do you want to be Kapowied this morning Thropan?!" Sheila yelled as she blushed and played with her tail nervously.  
  
"Why Sheila, I have no clue what you are talking about." Thropan said with another laugh as he stood up and winked at her. "You're just going out on a hunt to 'enjoy' yourself, I have nothing against that at all."  
  
"Hey babe, how about taking me instead?" Tirga said as he sidled up to Sheila and enveloped her in a hug that lifted her off the floor. "That outfit is driving me wild with dirty thoughts girl, skip the hunt and let me show you what so many other girls dream about at night."  
  
"Tirga! They wake up screaming in fear!"  
  
"Hey!" Tirga said just as he was about to kiss her.  
  
A pair of glowing red eyes turned on Tirga an instant later as Thropan and Onoli pulled Ranma out of the way of the glowing Sheila. "TTTIIIRRRGGGAAAAAA!!!"  
  
Ranma was about to get this guy off Sheila when she turned an death glare on him and brought her knee up to kick him in the nads as hard as she could. Whimpering, Tirga staggered back holding his privates and muttering something about how this was kind of normal and that he had taken worse before hobbling out of the room. Snarling mad, Sheila stomped her foot and resisted the urge to go and beat the living crap out of Tirga for doing that in front of Ranma. Then Onoli quietly made his way out of the room in the direction that Tirga had just gone, he gave Sheila pat on the shoulder as he passed and whispered something in her ear. Whatever he said was enough to make her perk up a little so Ranma decided that he didn't have to do anything after all, still, he had to say something.  
  
"So, are you alright? I can go and beat that guy up for you. If you want me to anyway?"  
  
"That's alright, he just caught me by surprise." Sheila said with a shy smile as she posed to let him get an even better look at her outfit. "So what do you think of my new outfit?"  
  
"It looks great." Ranma said, physically restraining his mouth from saying that it made her look like a walrus that had just crawled out of an oil slick.  
  
"Thanks!" Sheila said with a giant grin and grabbed his arm to lean in a little closer. "Let me grab my equipment and we can go, it'll take us about half a day to get there on foot."  
  
"Sure, I've got my pack here to we can leave just as soon as you are ready."  
  
She smirked to herself as she walked back up the stairs and let Ranma get another eyeful of her from the backside. Then stuck her tongue out at her shocked brother as she swayed by him in the upstairs hallway, she was looking forward to showing Ranma what this outfit looked like in her human form too. If he thought it was impressive now, he would be knocked stupid the instant he saw that transformation and that would be the time to strike. She had set everything she would need the night before, so it was a simple matter to put on her crossed belts and grab her pack with some rations. It was a bag of holding and had enough food in it for a month before they would have to start eating off the land so she wouldn't have to worry about food any time soon. Living in a town built and maintained by some of the most powerful wizards on Jade made for some interesting ways to spend her money.  
  
Once everything was ready she dashed down the hall, smiled evily at her brother who was still frozen in shock, and hopped down the stairs. Ranma was ready to go and had his pack on when Sheila came down stairs at high speed, as only a werecat can do, grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the house, the gate, and down the road before anyone could say anything to either of them. In the kitchen, Thropan was waving a fan in Tirga's face and smirking for all he was worth. He got a kick out of Sheila's antics, she was old enough to have a boyfriend and had been trying to get Tirga to notice her as more than a one night stand for the last couple of years and failing miserably. Then she had tried to make the guy jealous by setting up situations and playing with other guys instead of him, and for the most part it had worked when she had done this with Raphiel Ray a few months back. Instead of listening to anybody, Tirga had ignored them all and taken a different girl to bed every few days for the last three months or so to get over the fit of jealously.  
  
He had stood back and watched at Tirga killed any chances he might have had with Sheila during that and hadn't said a word. Even then she might have forgiven him if came to his senses and dedicated himself to her, but he continued on blissfully unaware of the problem. Then Ranma had come into the picture and everything had changed, where Sheila used to flirt with Tirga in the baths every now and then, she now spent that time thinking about Ranma and what he was doing. This had driven her brother a bit batty as well, but that was something that they were all looking into discretely, he hadn't been acting like he usually did and it had certain people worried. Even now Gar was stuck at the top of the stairs in his pajama bottoms with a shell shocked look on his face and Tirga had that spandex outfit etched permanently into his brain as a kind of going away gift from Sheila. Their reactions when they came to were going to be well worth the wait, even Onoli looked like he was anticipating that and he was usually quite calm and leader like.  
  
"How long you think?" He asked.  
  
"Ten minutes." Onoli said.  
  
"I'll say fifteen." Thropan said with a bigger smirk.  
  
"It's a bet." They shook on it.  
  
"Usual amount?" Thropan said holding up a gold piece.  
  
"Why not, this is going to be fun." Onoli said as he pulled a gold piece out of his shirt and sat it on the table beside Thropan's gold coin.  
  
**********  
  
Standing at the small wall that made up the edge of the parapet on his castle, Rook thought about what he was going to be doing over the next few days and wondered if he had though of all the possible steps he would have to accomplish. The lynch pin in that plan was G'nolga the Dwarf, of everything, she was needed to gain entry into Seer's Hamlet and lead a force into the Magi Council's chambers. He had gone to a lot of trouble to find that amulet and taught Hanza how to use it properly. It was but one of a set of objects that he had collected over the years to bring him to this point, the others would allow him to make her into the perfect tool for his plans. He had even gone to the trouble of raising an undead wizard that had recently died, costing him a bit more of his horded power than he had wanted to give up at the time, but was worth it to get the man's knowledge. He had been evil to the core, kidnapping and using women for years, twisting them with his magic and totally subjugating their will to escape while he used them for anything and everything.   
  
He had been more than bit impressed with him the one time the guy had hired him for a job several years back. Those girls had worshiped the guy like a human god, doing anything for him. That was exactly what he wanted for G'nolga and to make sure he didn't use this as an opportunity to escape or betray him he had neglected to give him free will like he did most other zombies that he used. Eventually he would rot away into a kind of specter and he could convert the thing into a Ghost Knight mage like he had so many others in his army, but until then he had a lot of uses for the guy. He was reprogramming G'nolga and putting all his knowledge into a series of spell books that would be put to use for centuries to come. Those books could be copied out and sold to several people for a lot of gold, one of the few things he needed the most.  
  
There was only one problem with his plan as he saw it, he was moving to fast and that would mean mistakes, but he had no choice. There was a spell he had to cast in few days, if he didn't do it in time, from the floor of the Wizard Council chambers, he wouldn't get a chance like this for another ten thousand years. Sure he could wait that long, but he was already bored with being undead, in ten thousand years he would be lucky to even have the energy to get out of the castle in the mornings and walk around. He had to do this now, there were very few other options available to him except working as a kind of studge for someone else and that was like working with morons and idiots unless they paid very well.  
  
Over the last few days he had also added a few things to his armor to make him look more important, though he would have been a little put off knowing that he was infringing on the Star Wars copyright material. This was Jade though so he could get away with it even if he had seen the movie before, so he didn't have a clue what midnight black armor and a floor length cape meant. He just knew he liked the new look and it inspired him to act like a bad guy, deepen his voice, and sweep around a room and glare at people through his helmet. The sun was just coming up as he stood there, so he headed inside to start the next phase of his plan. G'nolga would be finished by the end of the day because of the amulet and another device and be ready to go out in the morning. Most people had all heard about the weapon master that had turned to evil and were using her as a threat to keep their kids in line. If everything worked out the way he was thinking even that little detail would be used to his advantage.  
  
He had gotten a kick out of the fact that she had been going through some kind of trial to regain her honor when Hanza kidnapped her from that cell. They would think she ran off on her own, giving up her honor, her clan, get exiled, and placed on the list of dwarves that had prices on their heads if they ever entered the area again. He loved it, because of her the last plan she had been involved in had gone down in a flaming wreck when she refused to kill those two werecats. Her insistence on honor had cost him that plan even though he had just been hired muscle at the time, it was because of her that Tyrant had failed to achieve his goal as well. No, that was unfair, the first was true, but second one just didn't fit. She was in this position now because even after sacrificing her honor to defeat Julia she had taken too long and allowed Gina to get into a position too reveal G'nolga's cheating and allowed her to disrupt Tyrants plan as well.  
  
G'nolga would pay for her failures either by his hand or by giving her back to the dwarves when it was profitable enough for him, until then, if she survived. For a tidy sum of course, couldn't forget the gold of course and if he played his cards right he might even secure the services of Array. That girl had talents that she hadn't even explored yet and wanted her to put them to use for him, maybe if he found a way to get her out of prison and away from Tyrant she might return the favor. Still, that would have to wait until later. For now he had more important things to do as he entered his throne room, looking for all the world like Darth Vader with a different helmet on and glared at them. The Ghost Knights arrayed around the room came to attention as he made his way over to the throne and sat down with a flourish of his cape. A couple of large crystals sitting on either side of the throne rose up from the pedestals on either side and started go glow with energy.  
  
"It's time." He said; to bad he couldn't do the Darth Vader voice as well. That would have confused the hell out of everyone that knew him. "Bring me the old man, it's time we dealt with that little problem."  
  
A few seconds later an old man was dragged into the throne room and placed about ten feet in front of the throne. He shook the armored hands of the Ghost Knights off and glared around him as he pulled himself to his feet. "That's a new look for you Ol'Rook."  
  
"Jeb, I hear you took down several of my zombies yesterday."  
  
"They were just me sons, you raised them a few years ago, I just gave them a bit of discipline to remember me by."  
  
"You killed two of them and sent six others to be fixed up by the Zombie master, that cost me quite a bit Jeb. I don't have time to be dealing with things like this, two months ago I wouldn't have cared, but right now I need every undead creature I can get my hands on and you just cost me eight of them."  
  
Jeb felt a tingle of dread crawl down his spine as Rook's glowing eye slits focused on him as if looking at his soul. "But sir..."  
  
"You are going to be punished for setting my plans back Jeb, there is no other option, you brought this on yourself." Rook said.  
  
"NO YOU AIN'T! I'VE BEEN AS LOYAL TO YOU AS ANY GOOD CUSTOMER DESERVES. YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO..." Jeb yelled as he tried to run, but the Ghost Knights grabbed his arms and yanked him back like a rag doll.  
  
"You should have thought about that when you were killing 'my' people Jeb." Rook said and gestured at him.  
  
"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Jeb screamed as his body flared with white fire, sending red light shooting out of his eyes and mouth, his scream echoing over the castle as the power built up.  
  
By the time it died down he was being held up by the Ghost Knights and convulsing. Rook glared at the body, zombies were next to useless until all the skin fell off them and they had time to learn how to use their undead abilities properly, but they did make good guards when they were around and now that he was low on a few of them this fool had pulled his usual kind of crap. The spell he had just cast was enough to make the jerk into something a bit more useful than usual though, cost him intelligence, but it was worth it. The body drained of all its color and convulsed a few more times before it slowly started to move on it's own again. Rook brought his power to bare and sent it into the body, weaving his way through Jeb's mind and taking everything of use and erasing everything else that might make him a danger. No need to waste it and Ol'Jeb did have some skills that might have come in handy. The body jerked under the onslaught, but eventually it slumped forward and stared at him with a bit of drool hanging off his chin.   
  
"Take him down the pit before he begins to leak out all the liquid bits, when he finishes with that give him a crossbow and a bit of armor and put him on the wall overlooking the valley with orders to shoot anything that moves." Rook said. "We can always use him to cut down on all the rats that are living around here."  
  
The two Knights nodded silently and dragged the thing that had been Ol'Jeb off with no protest. Now that the easy bit was done he had other things he had to set in motion, so he sat back down and used the magic crystals to form an illusionary map in front of him to study. The attack would have to be timed just right, but with G'nolga at it's head Seer's Hamlet would fall like a tree. All he had to do was keep the Edge Guard busy while he quickly moved in and took over for a few hours and that was all he needed. The idea was simple, but he had learned enough in his life to know that there wasn't a plan in the history of the world that had gone off just as planned. So he would have to make a number of contingency plans, but that was what people like Hanzo were for. Pay them enough and they would do anything, that and the fact that he was the only reason she wasn't rotting away in prison right now.  
  
"HANZO!" Rook yelled, he only had to do it once. She was always close by unless she was practicing in one of the unused ballrooms scattered around this castle and in the lower levels.  
  
A couple of minutes later the door to the throne room opened and she came in wearing her normal outfit, at least when she was out of that armor she had bought. A brown and tan leather skin tight body suit, something she had picked up from her training with a number of other girls. He couldn't recall the teacher's name, started with a Kara, Kira, something like that, but she had suggested the outfit and Hanza took to it like a duck to water. He still got a chuckle out of the fact that Hanza used to be a man named Hanzo, that potion he had stolen and drank for all the right reasons had changed him completely and even now almost a year after it happened she was still changing on different levels. Occasionally wearing lipstick, perfume, even lingerie from time to time and being embarrassed about it. She had a towel wrapped around her neck and an annoyed look in her eyes as she glared at him.  
  
"H. A. N. Z. A! HANZA, not Hanzo! Get it right you undead prick!" Hanza yelled in his face. "You bellowed?"  
  
"Yes, I have a new mission for you to take care of this morning." Rook said, ignoring her outburst for the moment.  
  
"What would that be?"  
  
"I want you to kill one of the Edge Guard."  
  
Hanza perked up a bit. "Sure, who and where?"  
  
"Let's start with the easiest one first, their newest member and work our way up this time instead of taking on the whole team at once."  
  
"Raphiel Ray."  
  
"Exactly." Rook said with a laugh. "Now HanzO, I want you to do this today and this is how I want you to do it."  
  
"I'll do it my way." Hanza growled.  
  
"You are in my employee HanzO, therefore you will do it my way or I will make you stop wearing that perfume you seem to have gotten so attached to." Rook said as he leaned in close and made some sniffing sounds.  
  
Hanza just blushed and growled a little.  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
  
End Notes - There it its, part one of chapter 09, most of this was set up and an introduction to the characters, both new and old as Rook puts his plan in motion. The next chapter will be a lot more action packed. As always I've tried to give a bit of a history lesson on the Gold Digger comic and used it for all the history. There are sections of the comic that I haven't mentioned yet, but I will be getting around to those in future chapters, they just didn't fit in with what I was doing at the moment.   
  
* The dragon is thinking from it's own warped point of view and not even thinking about how all the good dragons had been more than willing to work with humans for centuries.   
  
The Edge Guard: http://www.monmouth.com/~roxikat/edgeguard.htm  
  
Sheila is Gar's sister. She has a rare werecat birth defect where her human form has her strength and speed instead of her hybrid form. She's an adult in a teenager's hybrid form. She chooses her hybrid form in combat usually because her human form lacks the healing and jagwere dexterity. Also, she's accepted more as 'one of the guys' when she's small, not as a gorgeous damsel to be put on a pedestal to court. Despite her insisted maturity, she uses words like pow and kapowie. Most of her elemental attacks are based around them.   
  
Race: Jagwere  
Class: swashbuckler/ fighter  
Weapon: Ice Fang, scimitar  
Special Ability: The fastest healer in hybrid form.  
Gar is second in command of the Northern Edge Guard. A dark and brooding warrior since Brittany Diggers spurned his affections after he tried to defeat her lover Stripe in hand-to-hand combat. Since he was trained by the famous armsmaster, Julia Diggers, the fight was nearly his. Gar refuses to let go for reasons of his own. But Julia taught him first and foremost to have patience without hesitance.   
  
Race: Jagwere  
Class: Martial artist/ fighter  
Weapon: Thunder Edge, partisan (spear)  
Special Ability: During a solar eclipse, Gar can focus his power to perform the Lunar Rave, increasing his strength, speed, and size.  
  
Tirga is a hedonistic, vain womanizer, who relies on his charm to get out of most scrapes. But behind his fun-loving demeanor, Tirga is a cautious, secretive person. Often uses disguises to blend into his surroundings when tracking his quarry.  
  
Race: Were-tiger  
Class: Rogue/Tracker/Tactician  
Weapon: Fire Claw, morning star mace  
Special Ability: His powers of vanity allow him to grow his hair to any length or style to aid in his disguises.  
Onoli is the leader of the Northern Edge Guard, and their strongest and wisest member. Raised in bushido schools of thought, Onoli lets little disturb his tranquility. Well-versed in the laws of the Retreat, he makes an eloquent public speaker at the Council.  
  
Race: Were-lion  
Class: samurai  
Weapons: Seraphim and Necro, swords of Light and Dark soul energy. The Jasper - Rain   
Thropan is a mechanical artifact expert as well as a mechanical and magical engineer. He rebuilt and modified the standard issue Edge Guard elemental weapons and gear with his own experimental designs including the device that lets them gate around. With science and technology outlawed on Jade, Thropan toes the line with all his technological experiments using magic for power.  
  
Race: Were-panther  
Class: Magical engineer/ martial artist  
Weapon: Earth Flail, dragon's claw (bladed nun-chaku)  
Special Ability: Master of the School of Xiao Pai Long 


	10. Chapter 09b

Notes -   
  
New Web Site:   
  
**********  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 09b  
Cory D. Rose  
ertle2@msn.com  
(c) 2003  
**********  
  
The sun was well up by the time the Rest of the Edge Guard was crawling out of bed and coming down stairs to eat breakfast. They were taking their time and taking a little timeto relax since the day was going to be a busy one, they all had things they had to go and investigate on top of their normal duties. Onoli sat the head of the table listening to Thropan and Tirga talk to each other while Gar was sitting off to the side playing with his food and looking depressed. The werelion wasn't sure what was going on, but he had been friends with them all for a long time and he knew his friend wasn't acting like he normally did. Over the last few months Gar's actions had begun to worry him more and more, in normal circumstances he would act like he always did, but when his sister was involved he was changing from his normal protective older brother attitude into this over protective stalker that hid in the shadows and followed her around wherever she went unless he was absolutely sure she was safe. He didn't know how to bring the subject up with his friend without insulting the guy and pissing him off. Lately Gar's attitude had taken a nose dive as well, making him paranoid and dangerous at times, especially after that incident at Brod's Tower with Ranma and Sheila.  
  
Moving down the table with his eyes, Onoli watched as Tirga just thumped the table a few times and nursed his beer while holding an ice pack in his lap. He didn't look that good at all and from the scattered mugs around him this wasn't his first beer either. He had been like this ever since Sheila had started to talk about Ranma and he had to wonder just how long the guy was going to mope, he took rejection pretty well normally and certainly didn't let it slow him down any. Sometimes it even encouraged him more than a little. It wasn't the first time the Sheila had brushed him off like this either and he had a feeling that it wouldn't be the last. He had watched from the sidelines as she tried and tried to get Tirga to change his ways over the last few years, but the weretiger was way to stubborn for that. That meant he was going to have to give them a little push here and there to see that they got over this little dilemma or it was going to cause way to much strife among the team and he would have to take steps.  
  
Onoli opened his mouth to give out assignments for the day when Tirga thumped the table again and stood up with a growl. "I'm out of here!"  
  
"We do have a job to do Tirga, today is a very busy day, remember I have to go to the Council meeting as well." Onoli said calmly, he had kind of expected this.  
  
The weretiger turned back to him with a mean look in his eye. "Like what?"  
  
"I was going to have you cover the road into the town today, those bandits have been way to quiet lately, they must be up to something."  
  
Tirga's eyes narrowed for a second before he nodded. "I'll handle it, but I'll do it here in a few hours. I need to take care of something first."  
  
"That's fine, just be sure to keep the bandits injuries down to a minimum today so that we don't provoke them to much."  
  
"No problem." Tirga muttered as he stalked out with his tail lashing.  
  
After watching Tirga leave the building and slam the door Onoli knew it was going to be one of those days and wondered if Tirga would even leave the city to guard the road. He would worry about that later as he turned back to the table and looked over at Thropan. "I would like you to take care of your normal duties if you can and keep an eye on Tirga if you can."  
  
"Sure, no problem, I have a new device I want to test out and Tirga will make the perfect creature to test it out on in his current mood. He'll never know I'm watching him."  
  
"Excellent as always, just remember to keep whatever it is to a minimum, you know how the Council complains about some of your devices."  
  
"No problem, I've been adapting them with a little help from some friends down on Smiths street."  
  
"Alright." Onoli said as he turned to Gar, or where Gar had been sitting a few seconds before. "Gar?"  
  
Raphiel, one of the newest members of the Edge Guard, looked up from his breakfast and shook his head. "He got up and ran out of here a couple seconds after you started to talk to Thropan, moving at high speed for the kitchen."  
  
Onoli cocked his head to the side and frowned. "This is most unlike him, we are normally working together very well even when he have difference to worry about. Sheila is out with that Ranma fellow, Tirga is throwing a fit over it, Gar is off on some kind of mission without telling any of us about it and I'm starting to get worried about them. There is something really strange going on here and I have no idea what it could be."  
  
"I don't know them that well sir." Raphiel said with a shrug as he went back to his breakfast.  
  
"I"m going to have to leave you here today Raphiel, you still need quite a bit of training before I will feel you are ready to help us out on our missions so I want you to stay here at the compound while I go out and take care of the mission that I wanted Gar to do after I'm finished talking with the Council." Onoli stated as he dug into his own breakfast and looked thoughtful.  
  
"Alright, but if you need any help I can always run messages and such. My speed is actually up from the last time we clocked myself and tested my limits."  
  
"I'll think about it, but for now this needs to be done and it seems I'm the only one left to do it."  
  
"I can help out Onoli." Thropan said.  
  
"No, you are busy enough with your normal duties and I can just do Gar's mission after I'm done with my own, though it will just make things take longer than they need to."  
  
"Then might I suggest you have Miss Luan talk to him." Thropan said.  
  
"Luan?" Onoli asked.  
  
"She's his girlfriend, a human that Julia Diggers has been training lately. They have been getting kind of cozy with each other for the last couple of months, ever since that debacle at the Tournament of Arms when Tyrant tried to gain control over the 'weapons'. They try to deny it though and pretend they are just friends as anything other than a couple is kind of hard to do." Thropan said with a smirk.  
  
"I don't think I've ever met her."  
  
"Until recently she was on a training mission given to her by Julia Diggers, along with a friend named Carla. Some kind of punishment for nearly leveling Mrs. Diggers house while they were practicing over in the Earth Realm, I don't know all the details though, but the Armsmaster was pissed."  
  
"Is Luan here in the hamlet?" Onoli figured it would be a good way to get Gar back to his normal self if this girl could talk some sense into him. He would rather not involve Mrs. Diggers in this if he didn't have to.  
  
"No, but she can be found somewhere out in the jungles on the other side of the continent. She said she had to go there to get training from some old teacher of Julia's from a ways back."  
  
"I thought you said this was a punishment?"  
  
Thropan shuddered. "It is, this guy is worse than Leep in some ways, but his training and techniques are top rate. She wasn't looking forward to it, but she had to go or Julia would have given her something even worse. Gar was supposed to go as well, but he never had a chance, we've been dealing with all these bandits lately and he had to stay around and take care of his Edge Guard duties."  
  
"What's this teachers name, I've never heard of anyone that was worse letch than Master Leep?"  
  
"I don't know, Luan never said, and her friend Carla just shuddered a little and sighed as they set out to find the guy."  
  
"How about if we contact Master Julia and ask her to talk to Gar. I heard a report the other day that said that she was visiting an old friend in the area along with her husband. That would be easier than traveling across the continent looking for some fighter we have never heard of." Onoli pointed out.  
  
"She's in the area?" Thropan asked in surprise. "I didn't know that, her movements are usually public knowledge within certain circles, but those have been silent of late."  
  
"They came through from the Earth Realm a few days back for a vacation of some kind and asked that their presence be kept secret unless it was an emergency. They are supposed to be attending the Council meeting today so I should see them then."  
  
"But this..."  
  
"This crap with Gar is getting to a crisis point Thropan, there is something seriously wrong with him and you know it. I think that same thing might be affecting Tirga on a smaller level, if Gaja was here he would have been able to help us out by looking at their auras and casting a few spells."  
  
"He's dead Onoli, we still haven't recovered from that and the loss of his magical talents has lessoned the team, even I wasn't as knowledgeable as he was. How long have we been waiting for the Council to send us a new wizard to help us out anyway? Six months?"  
  
"To long, to long."  
  
"You'll think of something."   
  
"We'll survive, in the mean time it's time to go to work." Onoli said. "Raphiel, will you be alright staying here by yourself, it's going to be a long day before any of us get back and I feel bad just leaving you here, but with everything else..."  
  
"No problem sir, I have some things to do around here that will occupy me while you guys are gone and it is only for one day. I can always get in a little more practice on my skills and take care of a few other things."  
  
"See you in about twelve hours then." Onoli said with a nod stood up and grabbed his equipment from a table near the door and headed out.  
  
Thropan stood as well and cleaned up his mess before grabbing his equipment belt and heading out the door. "I'll swing by to check up on you every couple of hours Raphiel."  
  
"That's alright, I should be just fine so you don't have to."  
  
For a second Thropan looked undecided, but then he shrugged and nodded as he opened the door and headed out. Raphiel spent a few more minutes eating before he looked around to make sure no one was watching, then dashed upstairs and vanished from sight. Once in his room he delved into his trunk at the end of the bed and pulled out his practice weapons, an outfit, and his manuals. He had been wanting to practice by himself for the last several days now and this was the perfect chance. Slipping on his loose pants, a pair of elven made boots, and a white shirt he had taken a liking to while in school, Raphiel looked himself over in the mirror as he buttoned the cuffs on his shirt. One of his classmates had once told him that he looked like a pirate when he was wearing this thing and it still made him laugh a little. Raphiel didn't think so, but the puffed out sleeves on his shirt were kind of pirate like.  
  
The clothing was all elven made and had taken quite a bit of his money, but it was well worth the price because they would allow him to use his werecheetah speed without having to worry about ripping it off while moving to fast. Britanny had once told him during a private conversation, that she wore the form fitting clothing to keep it from shredding as she ran as well as it's ability to make her look good. He didn't have the modern clothing of the Earth realm here on Jade so he had to improvise a little to get a similar kind of edge. Normally leather held up to a werecheetah's increased speed just fine, but the few times he had worn leather and run it had restricted him more than it helped. It had kept him from reaching his full speed the few times he had tried it out and eventually forced him to try something different. As a werecheetah he was a rarity, and didn't really have anyone around that could teach him how to use his speed properly. While at school one of the teachers had been an elf with some connections among the wizards and they had had suggested specially made clothing, perhaps a mage suit like Dr. Diggers wore, one that could withstand the increased wind and friction pressures of his speed.  
  
There was only one problem with his current outfit, he had no where to hold his weapons while he was running. The rest of the Edge Guard could call theirs up magically, with a simple word or name, but he didn't have that option available to him just yet and had to use mundane weapons instead. He had asked Onoli about it while they were on patrol and he had suggested some kind of harness that would keep one his back while he ran and allow for easy access if he were to truly need it for anything. As far as he could tell it would work, but he would have to place them under his clothing to keep the wind from ripping them off his back as he ran and in such a way that it didn't restrict his movements. It would be a while before he saved up enough money to get that though, several months at least, and then a couple more as the special harness was made to fit him exactly, so until then he would have to just hold them in his hands or in a bag.  
  
He pulled the wooden War Sticks out of his trunk and looked them over before moving them to one hand and standing up. They had seen a lot of use since they were presented to him a few weeks before, but he picked things up pretty quick and had advanced through some of the training pretty quickly because of his speed and an eye for patterns that always seemed to help him solve puzzles. The handle allowed him to spin them around and get them into almost any position he needed to fight and with his speed he did pretty good, though Onoli had still kicked his ass bare handed. As a werelion the guy could take blows that would have killed a normal human, so Onoli did have some advantages to exploit against him. Once he was sure he had all the equipment he would need for a few hours of practice Raphiel headed downstairs so that he could go over to the training hall connected to this main building and practice some snap thrusts.   
  
Spinning the War Sticks, Raphiel felt that he might be able to hold his own against quite a few people now, but knew that in large groups of attackers his skills were lacking quite a bit. Back at the Edge Guard training center he had received an in-depth history of Jade and the Retreat. As a potential member of the Edge Guard he knew that the Retreat would a major part of his duties since they only allowed werecreatures with peaceful intentions to ever enter the place. Every now and then a group of humans or other kinds of unwanted visitors would somehow find a way into the Retreat and cause problems. There had been several historic battles fought within the Retreat itself against some pretty nasty creatures that wanted to use the place for various reasons. Raphiel stepped out of his room and shut the door and was just heading down the hall when he heard someone say something.  
  
"There he is."   
  
Stopping about half way down the stairs, Raphiel could only gape at the dozen undead knights standing below him on the main floor. Only now that he was so close could he feel their undead auras filling the room. Normally they would have stood out like a fire in the middle of the night, but for some unknown reason he hadn't sensed a thing. He noted that they were all clustered around the hall in order to better cover all the windows and exits. At the base of the stairs a girl with really short brown hair wearing green and black armor stood watching him with a smirk on her face. She had a large spear of some kind on her back, but it didn't match any of the kinds he was familiar with from his training. Surprisingly, for a second he wondered if she was here to report some kind of crime like a lot of the locals tended to do, then he shook his head and called himself a moron for even thinking of such a thing.  
  
"Hello Raphiel Rey, this is going to be your lucky day werecheetah." Hanza said with a larger smirk.  
  
"Why is that?"  
  
"I'm in a hurry, so I'm going to kill you quickly and painlessly."  
  
"I would rather you didn't do anything like that." Raphiel said and winced a little, he sounded like one of those guys from a story.  
  
Hanza just blinked at him and motioned for the knights to get him, he stumbled backwards as they followed the command and started toward him. He wasn't a good fighter and the instructors at the school had told him that if he ever found himself in trouble he would need to find one of the Edge Guard or someone else to help him until he had mastered his weapons and achieved enough rank to be presented with a magical weapon. If this had been a living person he could have overpowered them with his speed, but in this case he figured they wouldn't even notice. Turning he sprinted up the stairs, stuffing the War Sticks down the back of his pants, and using his natural speed to out distance them as he tried to come up with a plan to get help. He could handle two or three easily, but there were over a dozen of the things so he would have to take them down one at time if he had to fight them. Now that he listened a little he couldn't hear any of the activity that had been going on down in the kitchen and wondered if everyone was alright.  
  
"Better not run to far werecheetah! I have this whole building under my control at the moment, it's just you and us now and I want to play!" Hanza yelled.  
  
"Oh shit, I don't need this."  
  
**********  
  
Leaning against a fence that hadn't seen a bit of paint in some years, Ashaton had his cloak off and was relaxing in the warmth of the daylight as it emerged from over the horizon. He had been trying to track down where those undead knights came from last night when they had attacked that girl and come up empty. Tracking them to where they had first appeared in the city had been easy, someone had teleported them in and let them loose to. They had wandered around for a bit before running into that Sheila girl, but once they did find her they had slowly snuck up on her until she had been in just the right position to attack. He figured that they would have pulled it off perfectly, but they weren't able to think for themselves all that well and that led to a couple of mistakes that gave their position away enough her to anticipate their attack. Enough of one to at least get her weapons prepared before they were close enough to attack anyway and that was more than enough.  
  
If he hadn't been there to protect her he wasn't sure she would have survived for much longer, but considering her apparent youth she had defended herself quite well. Showing that she had been training in the use of her weapon long enough to know some decent tactics at least. She was also been a member of the Edge Guard, the local police if he understood the term right. Maybe a special force of some kind that used nothing but Werecat soldiers or something. He was new to the area so he didn't know how everything worked just yet and getting the information was next to impossible without asking questions and that would draw attention he didn't want right now. His luck was bad enough as it was without encouraging it to screw his life over, so after tracking those things for a while he had hopped up into a tree for a few hours sleep.  
  
He wanted to go and check on the girl this morning, or at least see her before he left town just to make sure she hadn't had any more problems during the night. That compound he had left her at had been well protected, on three sides anyway. The forth, the one that lead directly into the forest would make an ideal place to sit and ambush anyone that went in that direction. Grabbing his cloak and wrapping it around himself, he headed down the street and checked his inner pocket to make sure that all the small hidden pockets still held his money and that he sword was still safely tucked away. There were a couple of things he wanted to buy before he headed back over to the compound and this would be the perfect time to do it, just as the shops were opening, it would also give him a chance to see what kind of technology was available in this city. He hadn't had a chance to really look around since he arrived, but they seemed to have no clue what modern technology was or they avoided it for some reason that he didn't understand.   
  
Whatever the cause, they seemed to have embraced magic almost completely. He had spotted more than one magically glowing sign here and there among the city when he arrived the day before because of a set of circumstanced he would rather have forgotten about. Still this was a city set up and controlled by mages, so things like this were expected and if he got lucky he might even find a wizard that could send him home. He wasn't really in a hurry though and figured he could take his time, it wasn't like he had any pressing business back home and this was a great excuse to explore a new world. Something every few people have ever gotten the chance to do, yesterday and those undead knights had been just one example of the kinds of fun he might come across if he stuck around here for a while. Magic was a useful tool at times, but he had seen the good and bad things that magic could accomplish. His curse for example, something he had picked up in his travels was something that had gotten on his nerves at first as well, but over time he had gotten used to it over the years.   
  
To much magic seemed to cause problems if it was over used or abused in some way, he has always thought that this was how the Springs of Jusenkyo had been created. That place was one of the few that he never wanted to visit again and happily avoided if he could, no one knew what that place has been before it became what it is now, but it had played a very big roll in his life when he was younger. At the time he had never heard of Jusenkyo and had no clue that the place picked it victims carefully. At the time, a very ripe five years old, he hadn't even been able to do anything except cling to his mother as held him close and ran though the underbrush near what he would late learn was Jusenkyo. Her rapid breathing filling his ears as they fled for their lives and he shivered in fear. They had taken out his father a ways back, but his mother had a gift for speed and had used it to get them away. Somehow the rats had caught up with them and had been about to cut them off.   
  
His mother had gone down with a yell and sent him flying, being just a young child he wasn't able to land right and crashed into the bushes and onto the ground a few seconds later. After that things became a blur, but he had vague memories of his mother screaming in terror as they did something unpleasant to her. Then one of the rats standing over him and picking him up by his hair and dragging them to Jusenkyo and laughing about doing a good job. His last conscious thought was of the rat knocking him out and waking up a little later in the guides hut as the old man had tended to him and explaining about the curse he had been given. At first the curse, had caused him nothing but trouble, but after a couple of years he had gotten used to it and had eventually learned to like it at times.   
  
He had spent quite a bit of time researching Jusenkyo over the years and had learned everything he could about it as he could, even going to the Amazon Village a few hours away. Jusenkyo was a place of chaos magic, one of several places across the planet that could manipulate chance to draw in it's victims like a spider going after a fly, snaring those it thought deserved curses and reeling them in with trickery and enough manipulation to make you think going there had been your idea in the first place. The hike to the pools up the long dirt path provided was and almost pleasant experience, allowing one to stroll thought the woods and wonder if one had found the most beautiful forest in existence. It was like a final goodbye to a your normal from Jusenkyo just before you learned what 'living in interesting times' truly meant, and a kind of hint that the world would never be the same once they arrived.   
  
Once in those woods, there was only one direction the springs would allow a person to go. If you turned around or tried to leave it was unlikely that the springs would allow you to leave. There was no going back once you started down that path and it had it's claws into you. He shuddered a little at the thought and sighed, it had been several days since his curse was last activated and changed him, but luckily over the years he had become so used to it that he wasn't bothered by it anymore. Only experiencing a kind of resignation to his fate and a quick adjacent of his clothing when it did happen. It rarely went five hours without trying to turn him into his cursed form, but after several days he had a feeling that today would be see that happen as well.  
  
Splash! Splaaaaash!  
  
"Well that figures." *A now female Ashaton muttered as she flicked the dirty water off her hands and glared at the open doorway off to her left. There was no one there, but that wasn't a surprise, there rarely was anyone present to take the blame for her current transformation. No one to blame or get an apology from, the form didn't bother her as much as the wet clothing. Shaking her head to get the water out of her hair, she sighs as she wrings a bit of water out of her clothing making sure no one had witnessed the transformation. Explaining the curse could be a pain in the ass at times. Several minutes later, after taking a second to pull out a towel and dry off some she entered the main square where several booths were already being set up by the long time users. These were the stores themselves, the ones that tended to sell just about everything one could think of, then there were the booths around the area that anyone could acquire for the day if they wanted.   
  
They were first come first serve and were always in high demand among the smaller businesses that couldn't afford to have their own store. At least that was how she saw it. She headed towards one of the stories and stepped inside to look around. It was one of those shops that sold other peoples work and from the look of the store this was one of the more interesting shops. There were several sets of chairs, tables, racks of clothes for men and women, and even a couple of couches here and there for people to relax on. Along the walls were smaller items like tools, some dolls here and there, and even some regular toys.   
  
"Good morning." Said a heavy set woman that had looked up from her dusting as Ashaton entered. "Your up early this morning."  
  
"Just wandering around to see what's available."  
  
"Well everything is for sale, just ask me about anything you might want to buy."  
  
Ashaton smiled and nodded as she stepped over to take a closer look. "No problem."  
  
For a brief moment she considered buying some new clothes, but something else captures her eye as looks to the back of the room and spots the weapons rack. She was about to check out one of the more interesting looking broad swords when she decided that it would be a good idea to get to the Edge Guard's compound and check on that girl before coming back here. So a few seconds later she tells the old woman goodbye and heads in that direction, but not before telling here that she might be back to check out the swords. Stepping out side she instantly senses something wrong off in the distance and wonders why she hadn't noticed it before now, but shrugs it off and breaks into a run. The sooner she got there the better it would be.  
  
**********  
  
He sped down the upper hallway as quickly and safely as he could, running for the second set of stairs that led to the kitchen down below, but just as he was about to step on the first step he saw the undead knights silently ascending from below and nearly fell down the stairs. Looking around frantically he only had a few seconds to realize that he was being cornered from both directions and all of them were holding crossbows, the silver tipped bolts ready to be fire instantly. Gasping in shock he stumbled backwards and narrowly dodge one of the crossbow bolts as it was fired at him, only his werecheetah speed saved him from being hit. He raced back down the hall, dodging even more crossbow bolts, into his room, and slamming the door shut and locking it all in one motion. Even that would only give him a few seconds of freedom before the door was ripped off it's hinges, undead of any kind seemed to always be super strong and could withstand tons of punishment. He looked round for a way out as he counted the seconds and controlled his rising panic, he had to find a way out. One of the Edge Guard, preferably, so that they could help him fight these things before it was to late. Then he glanced at the window, ran over and looked out onto the lawn below the window. There was another knight down there standing in the shadow of the building keeping an eye on the road that led to front gate to the compound.  
  
The window was too small for him to crawl through though, this was to keep thieves from sneaking in whenever they wanted to, it was for fresh air only. His options shrank to almost nothing as something pounded on his door and nearly blew it off it's hinges. Time was up, he had to make a decision right now or he was going to die. The only thing that kept the door from shattering right them was the dwarven construction skills that had toughened this place up a few years ago. Even then the place had never been designed to withstand undead monsters, cursing, he grabbing the window frame, and use something he normally didn't like to use. He concentrated on his strength and felt something within him change subtlety, energy surged through his body and for a split second and aura formed around his body. With a snarl he ripped the whole window frame, and a good portion of the wall itself from it's position and tossed it across the room just as the door shattered. The whole mess of wood and glass flew through the opening and plowed down two of the undead knights as they raised their crossbows. This gained him only enough time to launch himself through the hole and into the air, he brought his legs up just before he hit to ground.  
  
Raphiel landed and rolled to lesson the impact, but he still had his strength amplifying his abilities as he pulled his War Sticks out of his pants. A quick glance behind him showed the knight that had been standing outside was raising his own crossbow the instant he landed, the silver gleamed evilly in the early morning sunlight. Right as it pulled the trigger Raphiel exploded into motion, going from a standing start to almost full speed sprint in an instant. Werecheetahs are not just fast, but incredibly fast. It was one of the main skills that had been given to the first ones so long ago. Compared to Britanny, who had all the food she wanted and depended on her strength more than her speed, Raphiel would have left her in the dust and lapped her a few seconds later. Unfortunately Hanza had come here expecting a werecheetah and taken precautions, their speed was a well known fact.  
  
Two things happened as Raphiel ran, all that could be seen was a brown and white blur of motion moving just under the speed of sound as it headed right for the front gate to escape these things. The first was the silver tipped crossbow bolt as it clipped the side of his leg just as he started to move into full speed. Raphiel screamed as his leg seemed to touch molten lava and he fell, slamming into the ground and plowing a ten foot long gouge in the lawn, where he suddenly ran into the second thing. A magical barrier of some kind, being projected from a couple of small crystals that were attached to wooden beams of the gate. He bounced off this and rolled to a stop a few feet away and whimpered in pain as he tried to get to his feet. A couple of knights appeared at his side and picked him as they started to drag him back inside the building.   
  
"No! I won't go!" Raphiel yelled, but the things grip was stronger than stone. He couldn't budge it at all and his leg hurt so much that he couldn't concentrate enough to use his magical strength.  
  
Hanza opened the door to the main house as they approached and stepped out to greet them with an evil grin. "Nice try simpleton, but I have fought werecats before and have a pretty good idea what you are capable of. You won't be getting away, not today."  
  
"You won't get away with this." He gasped out.  
  
"Oh don't be melodramatic, of course I will, all I want to do is kill you and that will be done in a few minutes."  
  
"Damn you, why?" Raphiel growled.  
  
"You're a member of the Edge Guard and it's weakest member, you make an easy target." Hanza said with a laugh as she stepped out of the way to let the knight drag him inside.  
  
CLANG!  
  
Raphiel gasped as he suddenly fell into the grass, little bits of armor were littered all around him on the ground. A hand grabbed him by the back of his neck and yanked him to his feet, he had a quick glimpse of a red hair girl in a body concealing cloak. There was a hood covering most of her face even as he was pulled upright and she let go of his neck. This wasn't a good thing to do as he put a little weight on his injured leg and yelled out in pain and nearly fell over again, but the red headed girl caught him before he could collapse. Hanza wasn't really surprised, every time she was close to succeeding at something there was always glitch of some kind, so her face was just a little passive as she turned to look at the girl and growled in anger. She reached up and grabbed the shaft of the large spear on her back and crouched down a little, ready for battle. "Who the hell are you?"  
  
The red head smirked as she looked at Raphiel and his wounded leg, ignoring Hanza completely. "Silver char, that stuff is nasty if left untreated."  
  
"I'll be fine in a few hours." He said.  
  
She nodded and turned back to Hanza and smirked. "True, but I doubt she will let you live that long, you know how these people tend to act. You may call me Ashaton Chaos."  
  
Hanza snarled and finished pulling her spear off her back and stalked forward, motioning for the undead knights followed her outside. Now that Raphiel had a chance to take a closer look at them without running he could tell that they all had silver bolts for their crossbows and silver swords. Hanza just growled as she started to circle around them, letting the Undead Knights follow her lead. "Well you're going to be nothing but ash by the time I get done with you girly. You interfered, that means you will die along side him."  
  
"Do you have any idea just how many times I've heard some pathetic criminal like you say that to me over the years?" Ashaton asked as she pulled a rather large ruby encrusted sword out from underneath her cloak and she took a fighting stance. "I've taken down more dangerous idiots than you, so bring it on."  
  
"This will be your last fight, no one interrupts me when I'm working and gets away with it."   
  
"So far you haven't done anything to scare me girl and I really doubt you have what it takes to beat me." Ashaton said with a sneer, she always had to goad them into attacking.  
  
With a snarl Hanza leapt forward with her spear as Ashaton blocked her casually with a downward slash of her large sword, stepped to the side, and let Hanza stumble past with a slap to the girls rear end with the flat of her sword. She grinned within the confines of her hood and waited a few seconds for Hanza to get her balance back, snarl hatefully, and continued the fight. Ashaton hadn't been around this town all that long, but she had heard of certain criminal types that had developed quite a reputation over the they years and Hanza was one of them. She had used to be a man according to the bartender that she had talked to the night before, he had stolen this potion from a local healer and drank it before it could be delivered to one of her female patients. It had turned him into a girl a few seconds later and from the looks of things the girl was still struggling to accept the transformation, thought the hint of lipstick and perfume in the air suggested that the struggle was a losing battle. Ashaton had no such problem, having accepted her curse long ago and learned to live with it. She briefly wondered if a flash of certain body parts would be enough to distract Hanza at a crucial moment, then decided against it, there were to many to fight.  
  
Hanza turned on Ashaton with a glare and gestured at the Undead Knights that were encircling them. "Knights, kill Raphiel while I take care of this little tramp."  
  
"What?!" Ashaton yelled. "How dare you call me that you floozy!"  
  
"Looks like I hit a nerve." Hanza snickered as she leapt forward for another attack, spinning her staff in a certain way. She was only human, but that potion that turned her into a girl had given her some permanently enhanced abilities that including greater speed, endurance, and flexibility. She normally outclassed most humans, but this Ashaton was faster and stronger than she should have been and she couldn't figure out why, something was slightly off about the way the girl moved.  
  
Cloak flaring out around her, Ashaton stepped into Hanza's attack and met her charge with the flat of her blade to block a quick thrust of the spear. They were quickly spinning and waving around each other in a circle as their weapons blocked and they counter attacked each other in high speed whirlwind of death. She didn't even have time to watch Raphiel as the knights moved to kill him, this Hanza was proving to be more than she had bargained for when she started this. Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched as the Knights followed their orders and moved to kill Raphiel and realized that she had to get him out of here. The fight with this girl would have to wait until he was safe, but luckily she had bought him enough time to heal enough to stand up normally again. Turning to Hanza she suddenly doubled the speed of her attacks and pushed the girl backwards a few feet. Kicking her in the stomach distracted her long enough for Ashaton to bring her sword up and point the hilt at Hanza and use her hand closest to the bottom of the hilt to twist the very end.  
  
"Gotcha!" Ashaton yelled. "RUBY FLARE!"  
  
Light flared out of a ruby at the in a super bright flash that nearly blinded Hanza as she looked right into it and yelled out in surprise. Twisting, Ashaton turned, grabbed a half frozen Raphiel and took off running. Raphiel stumbled at first, but soon managed to get his feet under him and match her speed with only a slight limp in his stride and a bit of surprise at how fast this human could run. The Knights all turned their heads as the girl dragged their target out of range within a second or two, hesitated, then moved to walk after their prey. Hanza screamed shrilly as she flopped around on the ground in pain. Her skin felt like it had just been way to close to a lava flow and there were lights flashing around her head giving her a headache bigger than the planet. Crawling to her feet she tried to look around and nearly threw up from the wave of vertigo and throbbing that suddenly assaulted her.  
  
"Go after them you fools, cut them off and slice them into pieces!" She yelled through the pain, unable to see that they had already started to do just that.  
  
Undead Knights didn't run, they couldn't, but the ability to walk day and night without end, through anything and go anywhere made up for it. A group of Undead Knights had once been marched right across a lake to catch their target by surprise in the middle of the night, so chasing after two feeing targets was a cake walk for them. They kept their crossbows at the ready as they advanced on the training hall where Ashaton and Raphiel had just vanished from sight. Hanza still couldn't see as she pulled herself to her feet, but the pain had died down enough to let her move around a little. Everything around her was a colored blur of some kind covered in flashing spots that wouldn't go away. She could see just enough to make out nearby large objects and the Knights movement as they walked. She swore under breath that she was going to make that bitch pay for doing this to her. She spotted as green blur just a couple of feet away that stood out a bit and picked up her dropped spear and moved as best she could toward the building. There would be hell to pay for this, those two would burn before she finished with them, revenge was a feeling she knew all to well and there were several people in this city that would die at her hands today. She smiled evilly as a plan took shape within her mind, by the end of the day she would the most talked about woman in the city.  
  
**********   
  
"So did you bring along any warm clothing?" Sheila asked.  
  
Ranma shook his head. "Just a couple changes of clothes, a tent, and a few other things."  
  
"Were going to be out there for several days, will that be a problem?"   
  
"Naw, I can make do with no problems and survived with far less. My old man kind of forced me to adapt to that way of living off the land when I was just a kid." Ranma said as he looked around the area realized that he'd been here before, the last time he had been when he had been running after Julia as they sprinted to Brod's lookout a few weeks back. He hadn't had a chance to see much of the area while moving at high speed, so he was happy to finally see it all now that he was here and not in as much of a hurry. He looked behind him and wondered why he felt like he was being watched though, he'd been feeling like that since he left the compound where Sheila lived. The girl had glanced up at him every now and then, but this felt different, more like when his old man had been hunting like a dog through the desert regions of Iraq that one time and forced him to dodge those gun totting maniacs. This was a dangerous feeling and it was locked on to him. That meant he'd have to be careful and on guard the whole way. He stopped for a second and tried to read the Ki in the area around him to see if it would reveal anything, but all of it looked normal as well. There were a few animals, but nothing else as far as he could see so whoever or whatever it was they seemed to have some skill at hiding their presence from detection.  
  
"What's wrong Ranma?" Sheila asked as Ranma seemed to tense up.  
  
"I feel like I'm being watched."  
  
"You might be, there are lots of dangerous animals here and further on in the forest where we will be heading."  
  
"All I can sense are normal animals as they hide in the trees and bushes, nothing that might want to hurt either of us."  
  
Sheila sniffed the air. "It smells normal enough, I think you're imagining things or just a bit jumpy since this is your first hunt. Just relax and follow my lead, we'll have a lot of fun that way." Sheila said with a smirk.  
  
Eyes half lidded, Ranma simply looked at her and shook his head, perhaps the one hunting him was closer than he thought they were. That and the sunlight was glinting off the black spandex out fit Sheila was wearing and her curves were distracting him a bit, but he figured that mentioning that would get him into more trouble. "Yeah right, well let's go and see what we can find."  
  
"Sure, let's head this way. Why do you think we are being watched though? There's a possibility that there is someone out here after all, the hunt isn't being kept a secret after all."   
  
They turned and walked down a small path that led deeper into the forest and across a small, almost hidden bridge over an over grown canal full of slow moving water. The bridge was one of those rope and board types, so they had to move across it in single file to make sure they didn't place to much weight on it. "Maybe, but my senses have been getting a lot sharper lately. Especially since I mastered the Neko-ken, everything is enhanced and more sensitive and what I'm sensing isn't another hunter unless they are out to hunt us." Ranma explained.  
  
Strolling along behind Ranma Sheila noticed something about Ranma that made her want to purr a little, but suppressed that as quickly as she could as she gazed wantonly at his back side in those pants. Blushing at a dirty thought, Sheila tried to not do anything foolish. Having Ranma walking so close to her was making it a bit hard to concentrate on things around him. So she just enjoyed his presence as they crossed to the other side and hoped the whole hunt would be like this. She wanted to see him in action against some of the monsters out here. Then she saw something odd out of the corner of her eye, the side of Ranma's pack was moving, as if something alive had gotten inside. She gasped and jumped back as Ranma stopped to see what was wrong, the top flap of his pack opened up suddenly and a small Peebo peeked its' head out and stared at her for a second with glowing red eyes, it turned to look at her.  
  
"It's a Peebo! What the heck are you doing with a Peebo?!" Sheila almost yelled.  
  
"Oh, I forgot about him. This is B, Brianna gave him to me to help out with this hunt and supply information if I needed it." Ranma said as he took the little Peebo out and sat it down on the ground.   
  
"It's about time you doofus! Do you have any idea how long it's been since you last washed those socks?! That whole bag reeks!" B shouted as it started to spin in circles and fired a laser shot from it's eyes at Ranma's foot.  
  
"The socks are perfectly fine." Ranma said with a sigh as he moved his leg to avoid getting hit by the temperamental thing.  
  
Sheila walked over and looked down at the thing. "I've never seen a Peebo act like this one, they usually seem to be really innocent and willing to blow up for the littlest reasons when Brianna is in danger."  
  
"Me neither, they usually work in groups as they ambush some to make sure the guy won't be a threat anymore. Brianna said this one was a prototype that she would like me to test for her, it's a loud mouth though..."  
  
"&$#% you!" B yelled and took another shot at Ranma's foot and spun in a circle.  
  
"...and likes to cuss for some reason." Ranma finished.  
  
Sheila giggled. "It's cute too, just like Brianna's other Peebos."  
  
Scooting over to Sheila's foot, B begins to rub himself against her boot doing a passable imitation of a purr. "See bone head, even she knows how to talk to me properly."  
  
"True, but I can drop kick you into the nearest lake with no trouble at all."   
  
B huffed. "Like you can make it ten feet in this forest without my help, you don't know anything and it's not like a little water will be a problem for my great skills of survival."   
  
Then Sheila picked him and held him against her chest. "He is just so cute! What are going to do with him?"  
  
B tried to figure out what it was about this suddenly new position that made Ranma's face look like that, then smirked.   
  
"I'm not sure just yet, he is pretty dangerous like most of Brianna's Peebos, but at the moment I don't really have any use for him."  
  
"I'll show you a use." B yelled from Sheila's chest.  
  
"Can I carry him?"  
  
"Sure." Ranma said with a shrug.  
  
Pressed against Sheila's chest, B looked confused, as if he was trying to figure something out and didn't have a clue where to begin. He had to come up with a plan to prod the boy a bit.   
  
"Thanks!" Sheila yelled as she bounced forward and kissed Ranma on the cheek and caused him to freeze up in shock.  
  
Giggling, Sheila skipped ahead with an evil smirk on her face that Ranma couldn't see. "This hunt is going to be a lot of fun, oh yes it is."  
  
"Way to go girl!" B cheered.  
  
**********  
  
Staggering into the training hall, Ashaton chucked her cloak onto the floor so that she could have more freedom of movement. A quick glance around proved that there was no way she could get her hands on some hot water so she forgot about changing back into her male self and prepared for a fight. As she made sure she had all her equipment prepared she turned to look at Raphiel, but he was gazing at her with a weird look on his face. "Are you alright."  
  
He nodded jerkily.  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Yeah..." He got out, then went back to staring.  
  
"Um...stop that, your making me feel like a side of beef and we have other things to worry about you know." Ashaton snapped a few seconds later. What was it about the curse that made all it's victims prime examples of whatever they were cursed with? As a guy she looked about average, but as a girl she could pose as a model with ease, it was just weird and even after all this time she still didn't understand that bit. Guys just fell in lust with her body the instant their eyes took in her good looks, it was eerie in a way.  
  
"What was your name again?" Raphiel asked, the little sparkles in his eyes were just a little freaky.  
  
"Ashaton Chaos; you were pretty out of it when I showed up. Now snap out of it and grab a weapon, we have to take down these Undead Knights on our own!" She yelled.  
  
Blinking, Raphiel nodded ran over to a small locker to pull out another set of War sticks, his others had been lost in the earlier confusion, these were metal and had seen a lot of use over the years. "I'm not very good with these things, but tell me where to hit and I can do that easily enough."  
  
"Hit them in the back, right where the lower part of the armor meets with the bottom half. The only thing inside those suits is spiritual energy and that haunts the armor and controls its movements. If you hit them there the armor flies apart and it takes them hours to pull themselves back together again. By that time we should have had enough time to get away and bring back a priest to get rid of them permanently."  
  
"Sound easy enough." Raphiel said, glancing at the pretty girl again and blushing a little under his fur.  
  
"FOCUS! I don't have time to fight them while you stand around doing nothing!" Ashaton yelled in his ear.  
  
"Right, right, sorry, sorry!" He said hastily and backed away, even when she was mad she looked good. Sigh.   
  
"They were right behind us when we ran in here so where the heck did they go? It's not like there are all that many ways to get into this part of the house as far as I can see, there are only three doors after all." Ashaton muttered as she faced the door they had entered through and waited for them to come through.  
  
"I don't know, they move so quietly I can barely hear them and right now I can't hear a thing."   
  
"Pay attention to anything out of the ordinary, these Knights aren't acting right and that has me worried." She glanced around the room, it was about a hundred feet long, seventy five feet wide, and almost thirty with the second level walkway that circled the interior of the building. All of it was empty except for them, nothing was moving or making a sound and it bothered her. They had been right on her heels as they ran, less than thirty seconds away as they entered and now there was nothing to indicate that anyone was there.   
  
"Where are they?"  
  
"I don't know, this situation feels wrong."  
  
There are only so many ways into the building, two doors on this bottom floor, a door for the top level, and four large windows for light. Those are the only ways in here as far as I can see." Raphiel muttered, trying to focus on the situation and keep from looking at the red haired girl standing off to the side and her heaving chest.  
  
Drool!  
  
"Focus!"  
  
"Right, right! Sorry!"  
  
This was getting really weird so Ashaton moved over to the window and peaked out and saw one of the knights standing there with a pile of wood in it's arms as it dumped it on top of a larger pile along side the building. There wasn't much there, but it looked like it had dropped off several other loads of wood already and was going back for more as it walked off without looking at her. Confused, she ran across the building to look out one of the other windows and saw the same thing. Except this time there were two Knights dumping wood on a smaller pile along the wall. A quick check of the other two windows showed much the same thing as well, the undead knights were piling wood up along the outside of the training hall.  
  
"What the hell are they doing?" She muttered out loud.  
  
Then they heard the sound of things being broken inside the house, doors shattered, walls removed, and chopping. "What do they need with all the wood?" Raphiel asked.  
  
"I don't know, they should be coming in here after us. Instead their cutting winter wood and piling it up against the building for some reason." Ashaton said in confusion.  
  
"Whatever they are doing, we should stop them before the get done." Raphiel said.  
  
"I don't think so, as long as they are out there we're safe enough. Let them destroy the building, it can always be rebuilt. I figure they might set it on fire or something and try to smoke us out, though why and Undead Knight would even need to do such a thing is beyond me."  
  
"A-as a member of the Edge Guard is my duty to protect the buildings as well as the people of this town, I have to do it." Raphiel said with a little more confidence than normal.  
  
"Don't be stupid, if you were better trained I would risk a frontal assault, but you are still in need of months of training just to protect yourself correctly so that ideas out for the moment though if we get into a situation bad enough that we have to fight then we can give it a try. There is no way we can fight off all these Knights by ourselves though so we have to find a plan that will allow us to take them down one at a time, there has to be twenty to thirty of them at least."  
  
"We h-have to try." Raphiel said as he gripped the War Sticks tightly and wished that Onoli was there, he would have felt a whole lot safer than he did.  
  
"Just go over to that window and keep an eye on what they are doing and let me know if they change their actions in anyway." Ashaton said as she tried to think of a way out of this mess. She wondered if they were actually doing what she thought they were, if so, this Hanza was a lot more ruthless than she had thought.   
  
"Oh HUSSY!? Come out and meet your fate like a good little corpse!" Hanza yelled through the front door.  
  
"Come in and get me you bitch!"  
  
"I thought I'd give you one last chance for a quick death before I finished you off by chopping you into tiny little pieces, what do you say? I'll be quick, so you won't feel a thing if you give up now." Hanza said in a pleasant tone of voice, like she was ordering a meal or something.  
  
"We'll take our chances in here!"  
  
"Yeah!" Raphiel yelled all of a sudden.  
  
"Well I gave you chance, just sit tight and I'll be with you in a moment!" Hanza yelled out.  
  
The sounds inside the house died out suddenly and left them in total silence, Ashaton had a real bad feeling about this. She glanced out the window again and saw that the wood pile was even higher, then a Knight walked along it and poured wine on the wood as he moved down the wall. Now she was alarmed and her fears were confirmed when another Knight came up behind the other one with a torch and set the wood on fire. With a loud whoosh sound it raced around the building, setting everything on fire and sending smoke high into the air. Outside Hanza started to laugh as her Knights walked up to the only door with no burning wood and used a couple of hammers to nail it shut. Four others moved up to the stairs and nailed the upper doors shut as well, finishing just as the building started to burn a lovely shade of orange.  
  
"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!" Hanza laughed, the flames would take the training hall with it, forcing them to enter the main house through the second door that led into the main house where ten of her knights stood with crossbows, swords, and even axes to finish them off. This was going to be good, to bad it doomed any kind of covert attack, but this was a chance she couldn't pass up and this was her chance to finally kill one of the Edge Dorks once and for all. She loved revenge, it made her feel all gooey inside and filled her with a feeling of accomplishment and purpose.  
  
"She's trying to burn us alive!" Raphiel gasped as he backed away from the windows. They could hear the Undead Knights nailing the upper floor doors shut even as they stood there.  
  
"We have to get out of here right now." Ashaton said.  
  
"How?"   
  
"There's only one door left and she seems to want us to go through it." She said as she pointed.  
  
"Even I know that would be suicidal." Raphiel said.  
  
All around them the smoke was beginning to build up as the fire ate up the building and worked it's way up one side of the training hall to the thatch roofing and spread across the roof like a wildfire. Coughing, Ashaton tried to think of a way out of this and could only come up with one way and it would place them in even more danger because Hanza had probably taken the time to cover all the possibilities and was expecting them to pull something like this or go through the house and right into her main trap. Ashaton looked at Raphiel for a second and decided they would have a better chance if they avoided the house all together. "Raphiel, are you strong enough to break a hole in the wall?"  
  
"Sure, but its on fire at the moment so I'd suggest something else that wasn't quite as dangerous. How will we get through that?"  
  
"Speed."  
  
"You're only human, you aren't fast enough to get through the flames without being burned."   
  
"I'm fast enough." Ashaton muttered. "Now I want you to rip a hole in that back wall big enough for us to run through."  
  
Nodding, Raphiel moves over to the wall and examines it to find the best place to rip out a section. He had to find the right place to do this before it was to late and flames were able to get into the building itself. He could already he could feel the heat coming off the wall as he ran his fingers over the wood, but within seconds he found what he was looking for. Focusing his mind on the task he felt his strength kick in again and he slammed a foot into the wall right where it was the thinnest and didn't have any bracing at all. It worked like a charm, sending a large piece of the wall crashing out ward and into the yard with loud crack of shattering wood. It also shattered most of everything above it as well and sent a large portion of the wood crashing down on his head, that he hadn't planned on. Cursing and grabbing his head in pain, Raphiel staggered around holding his head just as Ashaton grabbed him by the collar and dragged him though the hole, past the fire, and out onto the light. They jumped over the burning piles of wood that the broken pieces of the wall had shoved out of the way as it moved through, but there were five Knights waiting for them even as they got past the fire.  
  
"Damn it! I knew it would be like this!" She cursed as she dropped Raphiel to the ground and sprang forward all at the same time. Conscious thought would have just slowed her down as she whipped her blade off her back, the long broad sword looked almost comical in her hands as she was spinning it around in front of her to create a quick shield in case they fired those crossbows. This let her have enough time to jump above their heads as she came down behind them and let the red jewels in the sword flare with energy. Lucky for her they were spaced out just enough for her to take them on one or two at a time with little problem, she hit it right in the small of its back like she had done before and smirked as it shattered it into various types of armor and ignored the cold wind that seemed to wash over her. Undead Knights without their armor were weaker than the average ghost and could be ignored for the most part.  
  
The next Knight raised it's crossbow and fired even as she was turning to it and only instinct kept her from being hit with the bolt, her sword spun into place and knocked the bolt off course just enough that it grazed the shoulder pad of her armor and tumbled off behind her even as she performed a spin kick and knocked its helmet off, but it wasn't enough to stop the things. The armor had to be disassembled completely, but enough for her to get into position and use her sword to send it falling into pieces at her feet with a swift blow to it's slower back the seemed to cut the thing in half. Sword spinning in an arch she was able to knock the next couple of cross bow bolts out of the air and she turned to the next two just as they were reaching her. These were in the process of dropping their crossbows and pulling out their swords now that they were out of ammo, but the blades were silver so she still had to be even more careful.  
  
"Raphiel, get up and protect yourself!" She yelled. "That blow to your head wasn't that bad."  
  
He groaned, but otherwise didn't make any other movement. Cursing under her breath, Ashaton leapt forward and attacked the nearest Undead Knight in an attempt to push it back several yards, but if there was one thing an Undead Knight knew how to do, it was use a sword. It blocked her with ease and countered attacked in one movement without showing any kind of reaction at all to her hurried attack. She gasped as liquid fire flared in her shoulder where the tip of the silver sword had just gotten her and jumped back for a little room to check it out. The cut was somewhat minor, her armor had stopped most of it, but the silver had seared a large chunk of her skin and opened her up. Blood was running down her shoulder and the pain of silver char was just as bad as she remembered.  
  
Growling, she spun the sword and narrowed her eyes at the Undead Knight. She hadn't wanted to show them that she knew a special attack, but this situation was getting way to dangerous not to, more and more of the things were heading for them as well as the green armored girl watched from the sidelines. That meant she would have to use her special attacks and take a risk, she could only use it a few times before she needed a day or so to recover, but these odds were looking worse and worse. She had to get into a position that would allow her to use it on a group instead of wasting it on a single target, that way she could take down more than one with a single attack. Then, much to her surprise, Raphiel rolls to his feet and kicks a nearby Knight in the lower back and sends bits of armor flying away from him. Taking advantage of the sudden distraction, Ashaton attacks another Knight in a savage series of blows using her enhanced strength and pummels the thing into the ground, scattering pieces everywhere.  
  
There were a few Knights left, but Ashaton doesn't have time to attack the thing since Hanza had decided to participate and brought along a whole squad of Undead Knights. She curses as she counts over thirty of the things marching her way and wonders where the hell the girl was getting the things from. It was like she just called for a few new ones every time she lost one. There was no other choice, she was going to have to use something dangerous and take a chance that it would work, her sword was quickly re-sheathed on her back as she brought her hands to her side. "Raphiel, I'm going to do something dangerous and when I finish I'm going to collapse. I need you to grab me the instant I'm done and carry us far enough away from here to gain us some time to regroup a little."  
  
"Okay, but how will I know you're done?"  
  
Ashaton smirked. "You'll know."  
  
"Whatever, just hurry it up a little."  
  
"KILL THEM NOW!" Hanza yelled and the Undead Knights started to bare down on them, their weapons raised to deal them fatal damage.  
  
Cupping her hands in front of her stomach, Ashaton growls as she gathers the energy she needs to perform her special attack. A shimmering rainbow like energy begins to form around her body, traveling from the ground, up he legs, and around her whole body in a matter of seconds. Still growling as she focused, a bead of silver colored energy forms in her hands and glows brightly enough to throw everything around her into long warped shadows. Raphiel, having seen things like this before moves behind Ashaton to see what kind of damage it will do. The Knights are slow to respond, but are closing the distance between them quickly enough for him to start worrying that she might not have time to power up enough of a blast. In the back of the group Hanza watches as well and decides that she might have underestimated this girl just a little to much. They would have been toast by now if this girl hadn't interfered in this fight, but Hanza was beginning to wonder if this mission was going to collapse around her like so many other jobs lately and it had started out so well to. She holstered her spear across her back and moved to twist her magic ring just as Ashaton's aura flared out around her body and lit up her eyes, brought her hands forward, and fired a blast of silvery rainbow energy.  
  
"AERO BLAST!"  
  
"Ah Shit!" Hanza snapped as she tried to get out of the way.  
  
It was a wide blast, large enough to hit all of the Undead Knights at once and destroy them as the wave of energy rolled over and through them. Ring activated, Hanza used her haste spell to move out of the way as the wave of energy continued towards where she had been just a millisecond before. With nothing to stop the blast it slammed into the wall of the training hall with a massive explosion of wood and leveled it almost instantly. Most of the house went up a second later in a huge explosion of fire and destruction that completed what Hanza had wanted to do anyway, she almost cheered at the level of destruction. Even with haste activated, Hanza caught the very edge of the wide swath of energy though and was flung clear across the property through the remains of a small building. It exploded around her in a hail of wood and dust as she was propelled clear through it's flimsy construction with a loud scream of shock. Ashaton blinked tiredly and decided that she might have put to much into that blast even as she collapsed in Raphiel's arms. In a burst of movement they were flying across the compound area at high speed. He still hadn't completely recovered from the wound he had taken earlier or the blow to the head, but Raphiel was well enough to run in a somewhat straight line as he headed for the trees at the far side of the property for a little cover and place to rest.  
  
They slowed to a stop at the edge of the property, inside a small area of trees that blocked them from view, but let them look out over the property to see if anyone was coming. Raphiel gaped in shock as the rest of the compound went up in flames and what was left of teh training hall collapsed in on itself, there was barely anything left of it. For the most part it was like a giant bonfire with a few pieces of wood sticking up here and there like bits of bone from some kind of giant monster. Undead Knights that had been inside the house could be seen staggering around inside the flames as their armor melted and their source of undead life slowly vanished. He was surprised they were still moving at all after a blast like that, Onoli was the only person he had ever seen before that could pull off this level of destruction if he needed to. The only thing that had ever come close was during a training accident at the school when one of the new recruits had accidentally killed himself by using a special attack when he wasn't ready to handle the added power.  
  
He looked down at the girl in his arms and wondered if she could have beat Onoli in a fight if they both used their special attacks. Onoli's special attack was called Rain and was strong enough to kill a full powered wizard if it was used at the right time. It could get through any kind of shield or magical defense, the one time it had been used against Tyrant, the guy had been forced to run to save his life. Ashaton had just blown up the Edge Guard home, he wondered what they would say when they found out just how it wad done and how they would retaliate. Though now that he thought about it, where were the rest of the Edge Guard? Surely they would have heard about this by now and come to investigate? Thropan was supposed to be around the city somewhere, the fire and rising smoke must have alerted someone by now? Shaking his head, he carefully placed the girl on the ground.  
  
Looking her over he saw that her injured shoulder was charred almost exactly like the wound on his leg. It was a silver burn, that could only mean she was a werecreature of some kind and she had fought that whole battle in human form. Why hadn't she transformed and used her hybrid from for it's added speed and strength? He frowned and checked her over a little more and wondered what she could transform into, there was nothing on her that suggested anything. The human form was almost always really weak and useless compared to the hybrid form that a werecreature could take, though he had to admit she was still really cute. Because of his own artificial creation he was permanently stuck in the hybrid form, unable to go fully human or cheetah. It had it's drawbacks, but it didn't bother him all that much since he knew what he was and that he had the freedom to make his own decisions now.   
  
He examined Ashaton a little more and took a couple of minutes to make a bandage to place on her shoulder. Most of it healed already, at least enough not to cause her problems in a fight though it probably still hurt quite a bit, but it was still bleeding a little because of the silver char going so deep into the skin and even damaging a portion of her very soul. He was probably going to have to sew it back together if it didn't close soon, but her healing rate seemed to be up to the job so he would wait for now.  
  
There was a noise behind him, almost a growl, and he turned to see protect Ashaton from an injured Hanza, but it was too late as the tip of a large green spear plunged into his stomach and came out his spine in a shower of blood that covered Ashaton. He cursed his stupidity as he clawed at the shaft of the spear and resisted the urge to scream in pain, he wouldn't give her the satisfaction of that after all this. Hanza stood there in her decimated armor, a toilet seat hanging around her neck, and blood running down her face and neck. She had an evil smirk on her face as she watched Raphiel's face fill with complete shock. Gripping the shaft in a better position, and snarled as she pulled it free. Raphiel hissed in pain, but all she did was spin the spear and slam it into the side of his neck with a resounding snap. His eyes slowly lost their life as he falls backwards across Ashaton in a spreading pool of blood.  
  
"Mission accom...plished." Hanza said as she spit out a wad of blood and staggered off. "They are both dead, there's no way she can survive that level of damage, the Edge G...uard home is a...flaming wreck. It's b...een a good day. I need a beer."  
  
Behind her, Raphiel's body convulses once and starts to melt into a gray, mud like substance as a puzzle piece made out of skin and bone pops out of his head and lands on Ashaton's chest. Within a minute there is nothing left of Raphiel's body, not even mud, except for the puzzle piece, but it will be hours before Ashaton wakes up. With all of Raphiel's blood on her and fading away slowly, she did indeed look quite dead, but it to slowly vanished along with his body so that she looked like she was just sleeping. If she had been conscious she might have witnessed several other fires sending smoke up into the air around the city a little while later.   
  
Then the strange puzzle piece started to glow, at first nothing happened, but within a few minutes the glow spreads around Ashaton's body. She gasps as her body shivers and she changes, increasing in size, growing taller, gaining bigger breasts, stronger frame, a long tail, and spots in her hair that become more dominant over the course of a few minutes. She groans as she wakes up a little and sits up slowly, knowing that something bad had just happened, but not what and shakes her head to clear it. Opening her eyes she realizes that her body has changed again and looks down with a gasp in shock at the transformation, shock turns to amazement as she checks herself out. This movement causes the puzzle piece to fall into her lap, still glowing slightly, and she picks it up and examines it closely. Then promptly drops it with a gasp as she realizes that it seems to be made out of skin and bone.  
  
"Raphiel?" She calls, but there is no answer.  
  
Fearing the worst, she picks the puzzle piece up and wonders what it is and why anyone would leave such a thing just laying there in the first place. Shaking her head, she puts the thing in one of her pockets as she stretches out a bit to test the transformation of her body. She then notices that the Edge Guard Compound is almost completely gone and along with it her cloak, the one she'd tossed to the side when they entered the training hall. Cursing her luck she morns the loss of something she'd had for years, but that paled in the face of this current transformation. Raphiel had to have something to with it, she knew that, only another werecheetah could make her body transform like this since her werecheetah form had been sealed away when she was little for her own protection. She gasped as she remembered what was needed for it to happen too, blood, lots of blood. Raphiel must have bled all over her, but for him to give her the amount of blood needed to send her into a werecheetah transformation he would have been almost dead. Where was his body?  
  
Shaking her head, Ashaton tries to think of something, but doesn't know what to do now that Raphiel is gone and his body missing. Where was his body and why had she been left there after Hanza went to so much trouble to hurt them in the first place. Her whole body hurt not that the fight was over, but she had to tell someone about this and maybe they could offer and explanation or two, but most of the Edge Guard were gone as far as she could tell. They hadn't been around to help out Raphiel when he needed them, or at least not close enough to make it here in time. She turned and looked out over the city and saw that there was a columns of smoke rising from several places around the city. That meant that this attack might not have been an isolated attack, but one of a series of places that were hit at the same time. It would explain what had happened to the other Edge Guard and why Raphiel had been left here alone. Taking a deep breath she used her werecheetah speed to break into a sprint, she had to see if she could find any of the other Edge Guard before things got out of hand. Unfortunately the only other one she even had a clue about was Sheila and she was in the forest swamp a few miles away, which by werecheetah speed was just a few minutes away.   
  
**********  
  
Rook sat on his throne with his black cape draped over the arm rests with his legs crossed. He had his hands laced together as he sat there looking down upon the new and improved G'nolga and he didn't like what he was seeing at all. She had been dressed in a form fitting dwarven leather armor and cleaned up as nice as can be, but he had expected her 'conversion' to be a little different than this. Over the last few years they had worked together and he had always admired her fire and passion, but this thing she had become under the wizard's tender treatment was almost an insult. Still, he had to admit that she was everything he could have asked for and more. Most of the wizard's girls had been kind of like this, but with more personality. He had been able to tell that G'nolga was a bit different from them the instant she walked into his throne room like a poorly created golem. Using jerky movements to move around and watching her kneel down and place her head on the floor at his feet had been both gratifying and horrid at the same time. He took a couple of minutes to take in all the changes, comparing her present state to what she had been like before he had her kidnapped out of the dwarven prison she had been in.  
  
"Stand."   
  
Slowly, almost hesitantly, G'nolga stood up to look at him for the first time and Rook frowned behind his mask. He had been planning to use her like a pawn that he could send out to do what he wanted, but her personality seemed to be completely gone. He looked into her empty eyes and decided that she wouldn't be able to do some of the jobs he had planned for her over the next few days, but that didn't matter, most of it had been stuff that would have been demeaning to G'nolga and this person in front of him had no soul. She was so broken that she would gladly do anything he ordered her to do. His enslaved undead wizard walked into the throne room as he sat there and twisted his long pointy hat in his hands. Rook scowled at him for a second before speaking.  
  
"She is supposed to be enslaved, why is she like this? What's the point of breaking her if she doesn't retain enough of herself to understand what has happened to her?"  
  
The wizard shuddered a bit. "I was rushed for time and didn't have time to make some of the changes you wanted."  
  
"YOU SAID YOU COULD DO IT QUICKLY!" Rook roared.  
  
"A-and I did, see, but for her to retain some of herself would have been impossible. This kind of thing can normally take months to accomplish, slowly breaking their will and destroying their mind. To do it quick tends to make them like this..."  
  
"I TOLD YOU I WANTED HER TO BE LOYAL TO ME AND ABLE TO FIGHT, WHAT THE HELL KIND OF FIGHTER IS THIS LIVING VEGETABLE?!"  
  
"Sir! She will be able to fight just as she always has, this way she will not be hampered by any emotions at all and is the perfect slave for your plans."   
  
Rook rose to his feet, growled, and blasted the undead wizard out of existence with a ball of energy that barely missed hitting G'nolga, she didn't even blink. Turning to the woman Rook towered over her and decided that he would have to work with what he had been given even if he didn't like changing plans on such short notice. Time was one thing he had lots of and could spend decades making sure he succeeded no matter what, something he hadn't been doing lately. He motioned for G'nolga to follow him and did what he could to ignore her shuffling gate as she moved along behind him. A few minutes later they entered one of the parts of the castle that he used to house a portion of his army, those undead that he couldn't allow to roam around freely. These were his most dangerous undead, ones that were hard to come by even for him and all his skills, they were the pride of his collection.  
  
He had to see if G'nolga could even do the job he planned for her to do and that would mean sacrificing one of his collection, but if she was able to take the thing down she would be good enough to do the job he wanted her to do. They entered a wire cage elevator that he had installed and motioned for one of his undead servants standing off to the side to lower them down into the darkness below. The skeleton jerked itself into position and grasped a handle connected to a wheel, there was a chain connected to this that ran to a series of pulleys up in the ceiling of the room. It turned the handle to move the wheel and the chains rattled as they slowly lowered into the darkness below. This was a section of his mountain top castle that very few of his ever saw, even those like Hanza who served him for a weekly bag of gold, if they even came across it by accident he would have taken steps to make sure they never told anybody about it. He had been working towards this day for to long to screw up now anyway, there would be no more mistakes like he'd made in the past. As the elevator descended into the pitch black depths and into the hollowed out mountain beneath his castle he glanced over at G'nolga and wondered if she was even feeling any kind of apprehension about what he was going to do. He kind of doubted it, that damned wizard seemed to have destroyed her mind completely.   
  
She was still technically alive even with all that brainwashing the fool had done to her so she might actually feel something as they went lower and lower, this was a part of the castle that only the undead could visit and survive for any length of time or were like him and had the power to control any kind of undead he'd ever come across. G'nolga, the one she had been before her disgrace and downfall because of Tyrant, would have been right at home down here with nothing to fear. She was but one small step away from being an Armsmaster of Jade, only Julia Brigand-Diggers was better than her and those fights were always so close that it usually came down to who had more skill than the other or which one of them made the first mistake for there were times when G'nolga had won one of those battles. These two would beat on each other for hours before they began to tire and even then they both had the endurance to last as long as they needed to. Now though, with G'nolga in this state, he had his doubts about her usefulness to his plans and if she failed this test she would not return when he took the lift back up to the top. There was another he could call upon if he needed to, though getting him would be a thousand times harder to get on such short notice as this, G'nolga was perfect for his plans so hopefully he could tweak her conditioning in some way.   
  
The elevator rattled as it descended into depths below and slowly moved into a pool of light illuminated by a couple of ever burning torches set up below. It eventually settled down upon a stone dais with a set of stairs that led to the floor about ten feet below, he stepped out and motioned for her to follow him down to the floor. G'nolga silently stepped out of the wire cage elevator and looked around as she followed Rook down the steps to a large metal door with a couple of more torches on either side of it and motioned for her to come forward and stand beside him. "This is the entrance to my catacombs G'nolga, since I'm the master of undead and powerful Necromancer this place is a little different than what a normal catacombs would be like. It is a small maze full of the more dangerous elements of my army, you have to go in there and retrieve something from a coffin several levels down from this one and bring it back to me within an hour. Do you understand?"  
  
"Anything else?"  
  
Rook was a bit surprised by the question. "Just survive, if you do then I will put you at the head of this army of undead and have you lead them against Seer's Hamlet to take the Great Tree."  
  
Nodding, G'nolga opened the door, stepped through and shut it behind her without another word.  
  
Rook was a bit surprised at what he head next, but it did put him in a rather better mood than he had been in. Maybe his plans weren't as screwed up as he thought, he stood back to listen to G'nolga make he way through the room beyond the door, it sounded like she was using the very traps that were in place to stop intruders to kill the undead that were attacking her. He chuckled as a loud roar sounded from beyond the door as the girl took down one of his more interesting finds. A though occurred to him as he stood there and moved over to another door and opened it to reveal a hallway that went on for about a hundred feet and ended at another door. Several symbols glowed as he walked up and with a gesture they opened on their own and torch light flooded out from within the room beyond.   
  
A wave of magical fear flowed over him as he stepped through the door, but he ignored it. The room was a huge cave filled with billions of webs and spiders and they, surprisingly, had nothing to do with why he was here. Rising his hand he stalked through the thick webs and skeletal bodies of the those animals that had managed to find themselves within the room. Two glowing green eyes opened and gazed out at him from a shadow filled corner. Rook stopped at the edge of a small drop in the floor and looked into the eyes. "I have a job for you."  
  
*Oh Really?*  
  
"His name is Goldwave."  
  
*An Ancient One?*  
  
"Yes, he has to be removed for the plan to be successful."  
  
*Then it will be done; when?*  
  
"This afternoon, at sun down."  
  
*Sounds like fun and it's been a while since I've killed myself an Ancient.*  
  
Rook stood still and watched as a massive shadow moved forward, rising it's neck over a hundred feet in the air and it's body started to glow. The thing rose into the air and spread it's massive wings as it's head bobbed down to take a closer look at him, though the shadows were still thick enough to hide it true form quite a bit. A wave of magic flowed from the beast as a glow enveloped it for a brief instant and it vanished from the cave. Rook nodded and turned on his heel and stalked out of the cave and back to main room to be pleasantly surprised to find G'nolga standing there waiting for him to emerge. She held up a small box as he approached.  
  
"This is the only thing that was in the coffin on the seventh level."  
  
"Excellent work G'nolga, it's time for you to meet your troops."  
  
"G'nolga nodded.  
  
**********  
  
At the edge of the Seer's Hamlet's main town square where dozens of booths set up for people to sell their home made items or services, the booths were given out as first come first serve basis so you had to show up early to find the booth you wanted the most. So even this early in the morning the place was starting to crawl with people of every type and description from all over the city, elves, dwarves, wizards, werecreatures, giants, and just about anything else that could be imagined as they set up their merchandise. Seer's Hamlet was world famous for it's the crafting abilities of it's local residents and always did good business no matter how bad the weather was. They offered the newest clothing, magical items, even musical instruments for those liked to play a little music when they could. Thropan, the tall, black furred werepanther strolled through the crowd checking everything out with an experienced eye. He was wearing his normal black pants, leather sleeveless shirt, and the items belt that was issued to all the Edge Guard members with his nunchaku hanging off a hook on his right side. On top of his normal duties as one of the Edge Guard it was also part of his job to find items and people that just didn't seem to belong.  
  
Most of the criminal element kept to themselves while within the city limits because punishments could be severe at times, but every now and then, especially with all the bandits running around lately, they took a more active role. Lately they had been trying to use technology to mass produce things and Thropan as a kind of magical engineer had found that it fell to him to find these people and put them out of business. He had, with the help of the Mage Council, designed and crated all of the weapons that the Edge Guard currently used while in combat. While Gaja had used his powers to give them access to the various types of Elemental attacks with a bit of technical direction from him, it had vastly improved the efficiency of their team against all types of threats. His own weapons, a pair of bladed Nunchaku that he called an Earth Flail, were able to use the very earth to augment his attacks when needed. Miniature earthquakes, splitting the ground, and a few other surprises that he was experimenting with.   
  
He stepped up to a booth where a group of men in armor were unloading swords, staves, bows, and crossbows from the back of a tarp covered wagon. From the way they worked it was obvious that they had been here more than once and quick look at the items they were putting out proved to him that they weren't mass produced devices. Everything had that hand made look that didn't show up in mass produced devices. They had some skill, but he had access to better stuff that could put these things to shame in every way. One of the men, a fat one with a long gray beard that looked like he hadn't taken a bath at any point in this life time waddled over pretending to wipe his hands off with a dirty rag. Thropan shuddered a little before turning to the guy and smiling at him, nearly falling over at the smell that wafted off the man.  
  
"Morning young feller, want to see anything in particular?" Fat and smelly said and grinned, proving that he had a couple of still in tact teeth still. "We've got some quality stuff this early in the mornin."  
  
"No thanks, just looking around and seeing what's available today."  
  
"Well let me know if you want anything from the stock, it's some of our best work yet."   
  
"No problem, you look like you should have a good day."  
  
"I certainly hope so." He said, dirtied his hands some more, and started helping out with the boxes of weapons again.  
  
Shacking his head, Thropan moved on to the booth which looked like it was setting up a to sell some fruit. There was a girl loading up the shelves and she froze when she saw him step up to look the fruit over. He smiled and waved at her, with a loud sigh and blushing furiously she keeled over in a dead faint with a large grin on her face. Thropan just smirked, it looked like his charm was still working as well as it ever had. An older woman looked up as the girl fell over and clicked her tongue as she spotted Thropan, she gave him a smirk as she helped her daughter to her feet and sent her into the back room for some more fruit and few minutes to compose herself. Then she cleaned up the mess before walking over to Thropan and punching him in the arm. "You shouldn't be doing things like that to my daughter."  
  
Thropan grinned. "You make it sound like I did it on purpose."   
  
"I know you did, you men are all the same."  
  
"All I did was smile at her."  
  
"See, and look what you did."  
  
"Ah, well at least I know all my charms work the way they should."  
  
"And what do you want to buy this morning so I can get rid of you?"  
  
"How about a couple of oranges?"  
  
"Just two now?" The lady said as she bent over the display and flashed her cleavage at him. Even though she was an older woman she still had a tight body and it showed in the way she moved and held herself.  
  
Grinning, Thropan reached out and 'accidentally' rubbed the side of her chest with the back of his hand as he reached for the oranges. "They seem perfectly fresh to me."  
  
"Oh a bit old, but still in perfect shape."  
  
"I quite agree with that."   
  
"Anything else?" She asked with a wink.  
  
"Not today Mrs. Leela, but there is always tomorrow." Thropan said as he put the oranges in a magical pouch on his belt.  
  
"See you tomorrow Cutie." She said with a sigh.  
  
Chuckling, Thropan moved on, he hand know Leela for the last few years and every day she threw herself at him and he refused. He knew the type, they liked to flirt outrageously, but never wanted to go all the way, but he didn't mind all that much. She had never brought her daughter to the booth before, but they had met a few times before. He had a feeling that the daughter was going to look him up pretty soon, lots of girls did, so he would have to find out what she liked so he could impress her. With that in mind he wandered around to the rest of the booths in the square, but was unable to find what he was looking for. There was one particular booth that he was looking for, but they didn't get to come to square everyday like some did so he would have find them some other day. So he was going to have to find a different way to track them down, but that was half the fun of his job, these criminals were good at hiding their activities even when they were working out in the open. After making several passes through the market and several of the side streets and saying Hi to several of the girls. He headed through the large entrance to the park at the far end of the Square that the council maintained for the people and headed for his favorite tree to sit down. On the way there he pulled his Lute out of his belt pouch and started to fiddle with it, this caught the eye of every girl within a hundred yards and they converged on him like bees to honey.   
  
He had a reputation to maintain after all.  
  
Playing the lute gave him time to relax and think things through and give him an excuse to watch certain people if he needed to, it also got him a date any time he wanted one. All he had to do was pick the lucky girl and she was like butter in his hands and they never complained. He had watched Tirga for years and learned from his mistakes, the biggest one seemed to be leave them happy, not in tears, and it worked better than he would have imagined. Tirga had tried to do it once and ended up in traction for a week under Nali's care. Now he just had to tune his lute and play for a few minutes and he was always surrounded by good looking girls who would do almost anything for him.   
  
It also gave him time to people watch as he played, they tended to let their guards down around certain kinds of music and this always gave him time to practice. Smiling at the girls, he glanced around to see just who was listening in. There was the normal group of girls who sighed happily whenever he came into the park, but there was also a tall man wearing a cloak standing behind all the girls. He sat down behind a couple of half delirious girls as they swayed to the music in front of him and gave quick hand signal, one that only a member of the Edge Guard would recognize. He nodded for him to wait as he finished up the song and stood up. All the girls sighed, as they realized that the show was over.  
  
"Sorry girls, but I only had the time for a short song today. I'll try and come back tomorrow and give you a couple of more. Deal?" Thropan said with a wink.  
  
They all cheered, jumped up, ran forward and hugged him while a few others tried to kiss him. He tolerated it for a few minutes before he waved them off, bid them good day, and walked over to the cloaked figure with a smirk. Thropan was surprised to find that the guy was a werelion like Onoli, they rarely came out of the Retreat anymore except on Council business. He reached into his cloak as they started walking and held up a scroll. "Hello Thropan, I see you still have the magic touch with the ladies."  
  
"Heh, yep, Tirga still can't come close to approaching my record of collecting girls for any reason . All he wants to do is have sex with them and move on to a different one, but I prefer to play with them for a bit."  
  
"He still think you're taking them all to bed?"  
  
"Yep, he even follows me around ever now and then just to try and copy my style, but he couldn't play an instrument to save his life. So Vallen, what brings you out of the Retreat?"  
  
Vallen held up the scroll. "This, the wizards of the Retreat have found a female werecheetah that isn't Britanny Diggers. According to the a few precog and scrying spells she is somewhere in this city."  
  
"WHAT?!" Thropan asked in shock. "That's impossible, the whole clan was wiped out, there can't be another one running around without one of knowing about it."  
  
"I know, there are several people trying to find out if these findings are a trick of some kind, but here's the weird thing, she won't appear for a few hours yet. One of the seer's saw her in a dream and said that she would need help before the day was out. There is something strange about her and they thought this might be why they hadn't found her before now."  
  
"Did they say what it was?"  
  
"No, only that she must have some way to hide herself from the spells that have been used to search for werecheetah's in the past."  
  
"True, but that isn't to hard to do, I can think of several weres that have used magic to hide themselves over the years. Why bring this to me though?"  
  
"You are the first Edge Guard member I found after crossing over from the Retreat."  
  
"Onoli is still in town, why don't we go and give it to him?" Thropan suggested, this was something that their leader needed to know about anyway.  
  
"You will have to do that I'm afraid, I can't stay here to long, I have to get back to my post."  
  
Thropan nodded, Vallen was one of the guards that kept thieves and other people from just waltzing into the Retreat and taking what they wanted. Certain breeds of were cat were worth quite a bit of money on the black market so they had to be careful who they allowed in and out of that place. Taking the scroll, he put it in one of his belt pouches without reading it. That would be up to Onoli once he found him, but he could start looking for the girl almost immediately. "Do you know what this girl looks like?"  
  
"Tall, red hair and spotted fur, a cloak, and quite a bit of power."  
  
"That doesn't tell me much."   
  
"Sorry, that is all that I was told and you know how unpredictable some visions can be so be on your toes. This one could be tricky."  
  
"Alright, I'll have to work with it a little to see what I can find. Thanks Vallen."  
  
"No problem, be careful as well you never know who or what might show up if she's the real deal." Vallen said ominously as he walked off, making a bee line for one of the local stalls that were selling fresh muffins.  
  
A few minutes later he was turning down a different street and heading for the last place that Onoli had told him about. Thropan thought about heading back to the compound to see if Onoli might be there. Then he'd remembered that as their leader he had a full day planned, doing his normal stuff and taking care of Gar's duties as well once that was done. That meant he would have to take the time to find their leader on his own and he wasn't to sure which one Onoli had wanted to start with first. Pulling his cloak out of his belt pocket, he shrugged it on and tied it around him with the hood down so that most of his face was hidden. Next he pulled out a pair of leather gloves and pulled them on, clenched his fists, and smirked at they started to glow just a tiny bit. He had developed these a few years ago and never had the opportunity to recreate them. They were a set of magical items that he used whenever he could and this situation definitely qualified. Now all he had to do was find this werecheetah and see if she was the real deal or something else entirely. It wouldn't be the first time he had encountered anything like that before.  
  
**********  
  
[Earth]  
  
"WHAT THE &%$# KIND OF JERK FACED BASTARD HAS TO TAKE FOUR PLANES, A BOAT, THREE TRAINS, AND AN EXTENDED HIKING TRIP AROUND THE WORLD TO FIND HIS OWN HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ionis, doing an incredible life like impression of Soun Tendo's Demon Head attack, screamed in Ryoga's face as they stood atop a small cliff over looking the Scottish Highlands with nothing to see but grass and trees for as far as they could see in any direction. He couldn't even remember walking over half of it and had no clue how they had gotten here from Hong Kong just a few hours ago. On top of all that his feet were starting to hurt and he was completely exhausted, if he had to walk anymore today he was going to kill this kid.   
  
"I know it's around here somewhere." Ryoga said with a nervous laugh.  
  
"We've passed the same tree thirteen times in the last five minutes and you were walking in a straight line the whole time! Quit stalling and tell me where your house is or I will KILL YOU!!" Ionis screamed, his patients at the last tiny bit and if one more thing happened he was going to make this little bastard pay.  
  
Ryoga just laughed a little. "It's by Mt. Fuji, were close, I know we are. I always have to pass this one bar six or seven times before I get home."  
  
"WHAT?! BAR!!!"  
  
"Um...the one we passed about two hours ago."  
  
Nearly foaming at the mouth, Ionis shuddered a little as he forced his anger down. He was tired, hadn't had a bath in days, and really, really need a bottle of scotch to calm his nerves. "This is the last time I will follow you Ryoga, if you don't make it to your house by the time noon rolls around, I will...MAKE YOU PAY!!!"  
  
Ryoga just laughed a little and nodded, stepped to the right and fell off the side of the cliff before Ionis could even blink. He stepped over and saw that there was no body at the bottom of the cliff, surprisingly common with this weird kid, sighed loudly and waved his hand. Seconds later a book appeared in his hand and he opened it up to a page he'd nearly memorized by now and with a few short words he vanished in a bunch of sparkly lights and appeared in front of the very bar Ryoga had just mentioned a few minutes earlier and put the book away. He had been planning to stop here the next time they passed by anyway, that kid was going to be the death of him and he couldn't even return to Lord Talon until they found that stupid dog. Now Ryoga had just pulled one of his vanishing acts, again, normally he would have used that tracking spell to find him, but at the moment he didn't even want to think about the little bastard.  
  
He stepped inside and slumped his way over to the bar and sat down with a heavy sigh. The bartender walked over and raised and eyebrow and barely batted an eye at having such a strange looking man appear in his bar. "Give me a bottle of scotch, the best stuff you got and not watered down."  
  
"It'll be expensive."  
  
"I don't care." Ionis growled.  
  
"Right, right, that will be 150 dollars up front."  
  
Wincing a little, Ionis reached into his pocket and conjured up the money and handed it over. A few minutes later he had drank over half the bottle and felt a lot better about life in general, of course he was plastered out of his skull, but that didn't bother him in the least as he nursed his bottle. The next time he saw this Ryoga he was going to make the boy wish he had never been born. No matter how loud he yelled or what he threatened to do the kid just took it all in stride as if he knew that there was absolutely nothing in this world that could harm him. Ionis had disliked the kid from the moment he saw him and the feeling hadn't improved a bit during the last few days as he was treated to a world tour because of the kid's direction sense. How anybody could wander around in a circle and not even notice what was happening like this kid did was totally beyond him.   
  
He had to think of a way to make the kid suffer before he killed him, using his magic would be a good place start, but Lord Talon didn't like him using it unless he was in a dire situation or on a mission. It wasn't like he ever listened to the kid about that though, he had to practice after all, but it was the principle of the thing. Just from looking at the kid's aura he knew that there was already a bit of magic mixed in with his life force and plenty to play with if he wanted to, all he had to do was give it a little push in the right direction and he could have his revenge. The kid would never be able to find anything at all after that. Lord 'Peewee' Talon wouldn't hold it against him for 'accidentally' killing the kid. This Ryoga was to stupid to live, there was a lot of strength there, but over all he was all muscle and no brains. Sighing, Ionis drank some of his scotch and wasted a few hours getting drunk. The bottle was nearly empty as the cell phone he carried around with him started to ring. Groaning at the injustice of it all, he reached into his pack yanked the offending little device out and flipped it open.  
  
"WHAT?!" He screamed.  
  
It rang again.  
  
Then he remembered to push the 'on' button. "WHAT?!"  
  
"Ionis, you better not have just yelled at me."  
  
"L-lord Talon, what can I do for you?" Ionis stuttered out and started to sweat a little.  
  
"Well?" Peewee asked in a flat voice.  
  
"O-of course n-not Lord Talon, I'd never think to such a thing." Ionis said nervously.  
  
The line was silent for several seconds before Peewee chose to speak again. "Where are you? It's been almost a week, I have plans to set in motion if we are ever going to get our revenge on those Digger Brats and you are wasting my time?"  
  
"Lord Talon...this kid is..."  
  
"Standing right next to me!" Peewee yelled.  
  
"What?"   
  
"He returned a few minutes ago, with his dog, but where the hell are you?" Peewee growled. "I told you to go with him to make sure he could make it back here."  
  
"But...but..." Ionis heard a dog barking in the background.  
  
"You have ten minutes to get back here or I won't use my skills to give you any more genetic improvements."   
  
"But..."  
  
Click.  
  
He carefully put his cell phone back in his pack, stood up and chugged the last bit of scotch in the bottle and staggered around for a second as his eyes watered and he had to gasp for air. At one hundred and fifty dollars a bottle he wasn't about to just leave it sitting on the bar for anyone to drink after all. For years he had been wondering when his life had entered the first level of hell and now he was beginning to understand. Getting drunk off that much scotch gave one a particular point of view, this kid was going to have to go, he was going to have a bad influence on Talon. Once he managed to stay standing for a second he held up his hands, still barely a few feet from his table, and said a few magic words of a spell he used quite a bit. Still drunk, he barely noticed as he got a finger out of place while saying the syllable of magic. He vanished from the bar in a flare of bright white light, conveniently leaving behind all his clothing, his pack, and his wallet.  
  
Splash!  
  
Ionis flailed about for a second, he wasn't sure what was going on but after a couple of seconds he realized that he had some how fallen in hot water and that it was only a couple feet deep. He stopped moving, shook his head to clear it a little and got his feet underneath him so he could stand up. Something in the back of his mind, still under the effects of all that scotch, told him that something wasn't right almost as soon as he was fully erect. The instant he looked around he realized what the problem was, he had landed in the hot tub instead of his room. He was also completely naked and standing less than foot from two equally underdressed girls named Link and Zelda.   
  
These two girls didn't get along to well, they constantly fought each other to point that Peewee got tired of placing them in one of his cell regenerators. Peewee had even gone to point that if damaged each other in their fights they had to pay for the others damages and expenses with their own money, they had very little of that to spare lately, it also didn't help tha they had been old high school enemies. They had, from the looks of the room started yet another fight and ripped each others clothes off in the process and broken pretty much everything in the room until they landed in the hot tub. Zelda had Link's long brown hair in her fist and was about to belt the other girl a good one, but they had froze in shock as he arrived and stood up. Now his manhood was less than six inches from Link's face and he paled as both girls eyes moved up toward his face and turned flinty. For the first time in weeks Link and Zelda managed to agree on something as they kicked his ass, though in the end he was glad he had saved up enough money to have Peewee increase the size of his manhood, it was the only part of him that was left unbruised by the time they were done.  
  
**********  
  
Look at the drink, drink the drink.  
  
There wasn't much else a person could do in a bar at the edge of town, that was why Tirga was there, and to see the half naked girl dancing on stage of course. He sighed as he sat down his fourth mug of beer with a thump and admired the girl's body as it curved around a pole the owner had thought would be a good idea. Normally he would have been right there at the edge of the stage to let her know how much he liked what she was doing, but today he was in mourning. He had lost Sheila, the one girl he had lusted after for the last few years. Most of the time he could charm any girl into bed that he wanted, even ex-girlfriends if he wanted to, but Sheila had always resisted him even as they flirted with each other, but it was time to throw in the towel now that she had found that strange human. He wasn't as clueless as most people took him to be, just a little on the obsessive side when it came to girls, he liked them just a little to much at times.   
  
He looked at the drink and drank the drink.  
  
He was kind of like that card game that Brianna had told him about once, Pookemon or something, he had to catch them all. It had taken a kick to the nuts to finally get the idea that Sheila had moved on to someone else through his thick skull and he didn't like the idea at all. Normally he just shrugged such things off and tried again a day or two later and kept it up until he succeeded, but he truly cared for the girl and always thought that they might one day end up together in a more permanent relationship. Instead he found his eye was always wandering to the next set of big tits or well rounded ass and off he would go for another night on the town. He liked the way he lived his life too, all the girls were like a bonus that just made it even better. Then Ranma had come out of nowhere and taken Sheila away from him with just a few words and a smile, even Gar didn't like the guy, and that was saying quite a lot. Gar was so laid back and peaceful at times that he was willing to let Sheila do anything she wanted so long as it wasn't dangerous. Now though, Sheila had run off with the guy on her 'hunt', the one guy that Gar didn't really like, they knew what she was hunting alright and it sure wasn't the monsters out in that swamp forest.  
  
That place was dangerous, but not all that dangerous if one paid attention, he had taken several of his girlfriends out there on camping trips for a weekend of fun. All of it inside a tent or out in the grass with a whole lot of humping going on. They rarely complained about it at all, it was only after he went after someone else that they really started to complain, but they were all just so good looking. He glanced up at the girl on stage and she winked at him to let him know that she had noticed his interest. Sheila was after the same kind of thing in his mind and the though almost made him laugh, a place to get that guy where she could jump him without developing a certain kind of reputation. Not like his away, but it proved advantages at times so he never bothered to change it. He sighed, almost wishing she did have a reputation like that, but instead all he could do was watch her when she wasn't paying attention and imagine things. Grabbing his beer he nearly finished it off in one long pull and slammed the cup down with anther sigh. He just couldn't understand why he was feeling this way. Heck as far he was concerned Sheila had just as much right to play around as he did, but instead it was bothering him.  
  
Look at the drink, drink the drink, drain it dry.  
  
It was like he had just lost his best friend or something. He waved at the waitress to bring him another beer as she walked by, when it arrived she gave him a concerned look as she sat it down. "Are you alright Tirga, I don't think I've ever seen you like this before."  
  
"I'm fine Elly, just a little depressed."  
  
She thumped him up side the head with her empty tray a couple of times. "My name is Amberlie, you would think you would remember who you went to bed with just a couple weeks ago!"  
  
Tirga laughed nervously, he hadn't even recognized her even though she had brought him several beers already. "Sorry, I'm just not paying attention today."  
  
"Humph! Well don't think you will be getting anything like that from me again, your a louse and I hope you've finally learned a lesson. You're depressed enough, maybe I'm right and you will finally grow up learn how to be a nice person."   
  
He smirked and swiped his hand at her in one of his trademark techniques even as she tried to avoid it. "Heh, still too slow." He said as he held up a pair of panties and rubbed them between his fingers.  
  
She gaped at him and blushed.  
  
"I always remember a smell girl, I am a tracker, and now that I smell these delightful panties I recall the wild night we had on the side of that hill, in the tall grass, as it rained." Tirga said with a huge grin as she steadily got redder and redder. "If I recall right we were pretty drunk that night and didn't really take the time to learn each other's names." Snatching her panties out of his hands, Amberlie ran back to the bar to try and save some of her dignity as Tirga leered at her and fondly recalled thee hours they had played around in the tall grass at the height of a pretty big down pour. Those were the kinds of night that he liked the most, they were always full of something new and different. He wondered if he might be able to do that with her again, though this time inside a real bedroom with lots of lighting just so he could see what her body really looked like.  
  
Knocking back yet another beer, Tirga instantly forgot about the girl an went back to brooding. Though that didn't stop him from leering as the girl on stage removed her top and tossed it back stage with high kick from the pole that gave him a quick look up her short skirt. He was about to give her a couple gold pieces to take the rest off when the door to the back stage area of the place slammed open and half a dozen half naked girls ran out screaming. Sitting up, he was about to whistle at them when he senses something that sends a shiver down his spine. He stands up just as the last of the girls race out into the street, and holds out his hand.  
  
"FIRE CLAW!"   
  
In a burst of fire, a morning star mace appears in his hand. The handle is made out of a dark wood and carefully wrapped in leather, the chain and morning star ball are made out of dwarven steel and if one looked close enough they would have seen Thropan and Gaja's initials etched into the bottom part of the wooden handle. Tirga frowned and glared at the door to the back stage area just as Undead Knights started to walk out with drawn swords and crossbows. This was enough to send the rest of the patrons running for their lives, though Tirga took a second to leer at the dancer as she hopped off the stage with all parts jiggling as she ran for it. He turned to the owner of the bar owner.  
  
"Jacob, make sure all the people are out of here. I'll take care of these walking tin cans!"  
  
Jacob nodded as he ran for the stage and headed through the second entrence to the back rooms with a small multi shot cross bow in his hands. Dismissing him from his mind, Tirga noticed that the Undead Knights weren't heading for the door as he had expected. Instead they were slowly coming for him as they moved across the wide room, grinning, he spun Fire Claw a few times and summoned up its magic. A crossbow was brought up and Tirga turned serious when he saw the glint of silver and realized that they had come prepared. He snapped the ball like casting a fishing line and the spiked ball flew out like a rocket propelled baseball on the end of a string and slammed into the knight holding the crossbow. Shattering the crossbow into splinters and slamming into the chest of the Knight and sending it flying backwards even as two others raised their crossbows and fired.  
  
Crouching low to avoid the bolts, he ran forward in a move that he had witnessed a few Armsmasters use, Fire Claw flew out, it's steel chain glittering in the low light of the room as he wrapped it around another knights legs, he stopped, yanked it off it's feet. It clattered to the floor with a loud metal crash, but not enough to do any damage to the thing as it used it's undead strength to kick out with its bound legs and send him flying across the room and through a wall. Cursing himself, Tirga landed in a roll even as the shattered wood of the walls rained down around him. He had just lost the only weapon that might have been able to take these things down. Playing with them really hadn't been a good idea, now he was really in trouble.  
  
From where he was standing he saw Jacob and several guys run out a back entrence to the bar. He glanced around for a second just before he went back in and really wished he hadn't just spotted a collumn of smoke rising from about where the coupound should have been. Now he had to get his weapon back, he could call the others with it and get this mess figured out once and for all. Running forward he jumped back through the wall and just barely dodged as several silver tipped bolts were fired at him, landed, rolled, and came to a stop just behind a table. The Undead Knights seemed to be locked onto him, they had been facing the door, but when he came back in they turned toward him and raised their weapons. His weapon was on the floor all the way across the room where it had been thrown.   
  
He hated undead, they were so hard to deal with unless you were prepared and who the heck carried holy water around with them to a bar with nude dancing girls? Growling, and hoping Jacob wouldn't be to mad, Tirga reached out and snapped the legs off the table he was hiding behind. Training with other types of weapons was required to be an Edge Guard member for times exactly like this. Transferring them to his belt for a second, he roared like a tiger as he heaved the table up by it's remaining legs and used it as a battering ram, running forward with it and plowing his way through Undead Knights. He also thanked whoever had made these things that they were so stupid when there wasn't anyone around to direct them. Half a second later he was through them and standing over his Morning Star as he twisted around and used all his werecat strength to throw the table like a low flying Frisbees to take out Knight. Shattering it to pieces as he caught it in the back.   
  
Using his foot in a well practiced maneuver, he tossed the weapon into the air, caught it in his and and screamed as a wave of fire exploded around him. Leaping forward, he sent out the emergency call to all the Edge Guard members in the area. The Morning Star arched out and smashed into a nearby knight, crushing it under it's magical weight even as he brought his foot up to kick one in the head. Normally this would have been ineffective, but he was a weretiger and possessed enough magically enhanced strength to rip a tree out of the ground with his bare hands. The Knight didn't' have a chance as it's helmet was nearly sheered off it's metal body. This distracted it enough for Tirga to bring his weapon around and crush another one, melting it under the flare of heat that exploded off the attack. Since it was a magical attack, he was immune to his own weapons destructive powers while he was holding the weapon.  
  
Within seconds there was nothing but melted slag left of the Undead Knights, he stood among the destruction in a ready position for several seconds gasping for air. His eyes were nearly glowing with suppressed rage as he tried to find more targets to hit, but they had stopped moving. Eventually the rational part of his mind took over again and he relaxed a little. Most of the bar had taken damage, but it was still standing and all of the Knights had been destroyed. Cursing, he headed outside and glared around at the small crowd that had gathered to watch him in action. Tirga was known to be a ladies man and had quite the reputation for it, but he was also a member of the Edge Guard and they were some of the cities defenders so his unique approach to things was tolerated by most because he could do things just like this. Ignoring them he used his strength to jump over the crowd and headed for the compound to see if there was something bad going on over there. Raphiel might be in trouble and he wouldn't abandon a team mate, especially one this inexperienced.  
  
Then as he rounding a corner he spotted something that made even him pause in shock and took a few seconds for the sight to trickle through his brain. It was a girl, a well rounded really pissed off girl, a well rounded, pissed off, werecheetah girl to be exact and she had just ran into him going full speed. He didn't have time to react as they went tumbling for several yards, but he did what he could to cushion the girls fall to make sure she wasn't hurt. They came to a rest in a heap near one of the buildings and she groaned a little and started to move around. Tirga smirked as she rested her hands against his muscled chest and took a second to sit up and look at him. "Your one of the Edge Guard aren't you?"   
  
He gave her his best smile and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her athletic body a little closer, it was lust at first sight. "Oh yeah, I know what you want."  
  
That caused Ashaton to blink in surprise and realize the strange position she had just found herself in. "What do you think you're doing?"  
  
"You're kind of cute and incredibly rare as well." Tirga said with a leer at her breasts.  
  
"Let go of me, we have to go and..."  
  
"Find some place more private? Oh yeah, I'm all for that." Tirga said in a suggestive way.   
  
Her eye started to twitch a little as he refused to let her go and she started to reach behind her that Tirga realized that she was going to pull this rather large broadsword off her back and use it on him. He let go and scooted away as fast as he could and started laughing nervously. "Now I'm not into any of that kind of sexual play type stuff, let's just find a room and have some fun."  
  
"PERVERT!!" Ashaton screamed and raised her red bladed weapon above her head to slice him into two separate pieces.  
  
"What did I do to deserve this?!" Tirga yelled and ran for it, barely dodging a blow that would have removed his whole reason for being a man in the first place. The enraged werecheetah followed, close on his heels screaming death threats all the way. He couldn't help leering at her as he fled though, she was really cute, this just succeeded in pissing her off even more. This just wasn't his day.   
  
They ran through the main square and attracted quite a crowd of people as Tirga ran in circles, around booths, and into the park where a certain werepanther was just taking his second morning break. Ashaton didn't notice any of this, she just wanted to crush the pervert into tiny little pieces. No one did that to her and got away with it. "COME BACK HERE AND DIE PERVERT!!"  
  
"Forget that, I'd rather do something more fun than that cute stuff!" Tirga yelled, having a grand old time.  
  
Thropan just blinked in surprise and jogged off after than, if that wasn't the werecheetah he'd been told to keep an eye out for he would eat his lute. The hair, the tail, the enraged scream of female indignation that only Tirga could get a girl to utter, oh yeah it was her alright. Now all he had to do was catch up and find a way to talk to her without being attacked, maybe if he played her a song she'd calm down a little. Liking the idea he smiled and just shook his head at the destruction that was left in the path of the two. The girl was swing that sword all over the place, where the heck did she find a red blade like that though, and smashing anything that got in her way. He had to dodge around several crushed or broken wooden carts, a booth where she had crashed through one wall and out the other instead of using the door like Tirga did, and even a couple of toppled trees.   
  
Yep, a song would be just thing to calm her down, then groaned as Tirga led her right into the men's public baths and a few seconds after they entered the eruption of silence was enough to make even him worry and he headed into the bath house and down to where the fight had ended up. He expected to find a bleeding or injured Tirga down on the floor or a fight in progress, what he got instead was whole lot stranger. Then came a blood curdling scream of horror that sent a chill down Thropan's back as he looked across the room to see Tirga about to be killed by a 'male' werecheetah as it raised the girl's sword above his head. There was no sign of the girl though.  
  
**********  
  
They hand been minding their own business when Ranma had accidentally stepped on thing's head, which was, interestingly enough, attached to a rather long neck that stuck out of the swampy water off to the side of the path they were walking along and resting on the soft sand at the edge of the water among the bushes. Shock didn't begin to describe what Ranma felt as the thing's head lifted up into the air and towered above him with a hungry look in it's eye for disturbing it's nap. It was huge, over twelve foot tall, blue and black, covered in thick slimy scales and had more teeth than a shark on the hunt. Running on all four legs, the thing roared at them and tried to bite Ranma in half with a snap of it jaws. A quick jump and roll was all that saved Ranma from losing his head, he landed and barely avoided giving away his curse, and broke into a run even as the thing started to run after him.   
  
"RAUGHAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Roared the Bog Thresher, it echoed all across the area.  
  
B looked on from his place in Sheila's back pack with an amused expression on his face as he yelled. "RUN FOREST RUN!"  
  
"Oh be quiet you, we need to find a way to get in front of that thing so we can take it down." Sheila said as she struggled to catch up with the pair, though she did wonder why B wanted Ranma to run into the forest.  
  
In a burst of speed she took off after the Bog Thresher, Ice Fang appeared in her hand as she ran. Even though her werecat gene was screwed up, she had always been thankful that her speed was in this particular form and not her human one. This kicked in as she ran and was quickly zooming through the water logged forest paths after Ranma. She was quite impressed at just how fast the guy could go when he really needed to, though with a twelve foot high armored Bog Thresher on your tail it was only understandable. Taking advantage of her small size, Sheila picked up the pace as much as she could and was soon running even with the Thresher, though about fifteen feet off to the side. She began to angle in toward them so that she could intercept them and take the thing down. Ranma obviously didn't know about them and how vulnerable they were to dwarven steel.  
  
Up in front Ranma used his Ki control to run far faster than he ever had before, moving so fast that he was able to keep well ahead of the monster. Though close enough that a simple glance back was enough to see it's blood stained teeth and the drool dripping off it's chin. He had never seen anything like it before and wondered what they were weak against, ever animal had a weakness, it was just a matter of finding it. Taking out mountain bears and such were usually pretty easy, all it took was a stone crusher fist to the forehead and they went right down with everything in their skulls caved in. Killing them on the spot. He wasn't sure about this thing, it seemed to be armored better than an alligator, ten times as big and fast. It had too many teeth to count, long claws on it's feet that ripped holes in the wet grass as it ran and threw divots of dirt into the air behind it . The thing had been made for this kind of environment as far as he could tell, it was fast and dangerous, exactly what this hunt was all about. He looked ahead and decided that he had run enough, this thing needed to be taken down before it hurt anyone like Sheila. He thought about it for a second and came up with a plan.   
  
Off to the side he saw Sheila coming toward them at high speed with a sword in hand, moving faster than he'd ever seen her move before. Then he recalled that she was a werecat, he kept forgetting that she was covered in fur and had cat like features, and that most of them could move at a high rate of speed when they wanted to. Being around Britanny had shown him that she could do some pretty amazing things when she wanted to, massive amounts of strength and speed on command. He figured Sheila was the same, with that he adjusted his plan a little and scanned ahead to see at what point they would cross paths. Narrowing his eyes he spotted the exact area about ten seconds before he reached it, picked a tree and headed right for it. He had used to do this to his old man all the time because it confused him while they were fighting, though eventually he had learned to anticipate it and devised some counter attacks that were really painful. The monster didn't know how dodge the attack so it would be perfect in this situation and would allow Sheila to get a good shot in while he was in the air.   
  
Sheila almost panicked when she saw Ranma heading for a rather large tree off to the side of his path, if he ran into it at the speed he was going he would be hurt badly. She was about to shout at him to turn when he picked up speed and suddenly seemed to run right up the side of the tree with no apparent effort and launched himself into the air way above the Bog Thresher and performed a slow backwards flip that would allow him to land behind the thing with little effort. She saw that he was giving her a chance to take the things down and shot forward as she came into range and attacked just as the Thresher ran head first into the tree and buried it's claws into the thick bark with another roar. Her sword Ice Fang flashed out just as she reached the thing's head and sliced through its neck before it could shake of the blow it had just taken from the tree. By the time it fell down dead Ranma was walking up with a weird look on his face.  
  
"Are you alright Ranma?" Sheila asked.  
  
"Kick his ass for being and idiot." B grumbled from her back pack.   
  
"Oh hush." Sheila said and thumped B to quiet him down.  
  
"I'm fine, what the heck did you do? That thing seemed a lot more dangerous than that, yet you just run up and behead the thing with no problems?" Ranma muttered as he kicked the things foot.  
  
Sheila grinned. "Bog Threshers are all look, they are dangerous when they get this size, but their scales spend so much time in the water that they are more like a thick rubber than anything else. They make up a good portion of most adventurers diets these days, they make perfect steaks."  
  
"Man if I had known that I wouldn't have run, I thought it was armored like an alligator was and those things are dangerous if you get to close."  
  
"Bog Threshers are very dangerous on their initial attack, fast and deadly, but after that they become vulnerable to swords and axes."  
  
"Ah...so what do we do with it now?"  
  
Reaching down, Sheila slammed her sword into a small horn on it's head and removed it. "We take this with us, when we return to town we will get a few gold pieces for it from the city council."  
  
"What about the body?"  
  
She shrugged. "We can skin it and make some clothing like boots, gloves, and armor while using the meat for food. Or we can just leave it here and it will feed the other swamp animals for a couple of days."  
  
B sticks his head out of Sheila's pack again and looks over at Ranma. "Why don't you eat it Ranma?"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Brianna has seen you eat more food than ten people could ever consume, you could certainly pack away this little thing, it's just a light snack after all."   
  
"Snack?" Sheila mutters as she gazes down at the huge monster in front of them and figures it's enough to feed about twenty to thirty people easily. "You're kidding?"  
  
"Nope! The human garbage disposal over here can snarf down that and more." B yells out.  
  
Walking around the Bog Thresher, Ranma examines a few areas to see if he might like it or not. "Sounds like a good idea to me, why let it go to waste."  
  
"You're going to eat the whole thing?!" She screams.  
  
Ranma shakes his head and shrugs his pack off and pulls out some knives and other items he might need, surprisingly unmolested and in good shape even after all this. "Well maybe not the whole thing..."  
  
"Jeeze you had me worried for minute there."   
  
Ranma nods and starts setting up a small fire for the job. "I'm just going to eat the good parts."  
  
Sheila facefaults as B starts laughing inside her pack.  
  
A couple of hours later they crest the top of a small hill and look out over even more of the swamp and stop to rest. Sheila turns and looks around for a second before she nods and turns back to Ranma. "This is where we will really begin, this area is full of monsters and other nasties that we will have to take care of. See that sign down there?"  
  
Looking down the small rise Ranma can see a wooden plank nailed to the side of a tree and nods.  
  
"The mage council set that up, there's a spell on it and three others spaced around this small valley that makes it so that monsters can go in, but they don't want to leave."  
  
"So it's like a magical fence?"  
  
"Yep, it keeps most of them here, but every now and then one will find a way through and go on a rampage across unclaimed parts of the swamp and cause the farmers that live near this swamp problems."  
  
"This should be easy enough." Ranma said with a smirk.  
  
"I told you not to act that way Ranma, these monsters are dangerous, even with special weapons and such they can still kill us if we make a mistake." Sheila snapped. The boy was cute but for some reasons just didn't seem to grasp the concept of just how dangerous this was.  
  
"Bah, that's easy enough to get around."  
  
"Oh, and how would you get around this danger?"  
  
"That's easy, just don't get caught."  
  
Sheila facefaults with a thump. "...ow..."  
  
"Sheila you should know by now that he a few fries short of a happy meal." B says from her pack. "He has no concept of his own mortality."  
  
"You alright, I didn't see you trip there." Ranma says as he helps her up. B glares at him from the inside of Sheila's pack.  
  
"Um...yeah." Sheila says as she tries to figure out how a guy can be this dense, he didn't really strike her as the good looking but stupid type. One minute he was a normal guy, the next she had to fight of the urge to deck him one and the feeling just confused the heck out of her. She didn't normally want to get violent with the guys she went out with, but Ranma just brought it out of her a little to easily.  
  
"You better put him on a leash girl, I don't think he's house broken yet and you should see what he does when you throw cold water on him." B yells as Ranma steps away from Sheila.  
  
Ranma glares and Sheila just blushes at the leash comment, though completely missing the what B is talking about and instead thinking about what Ranma would look like in a wet t-shirt and all those rippling muscles.  
  
"Heheheheh, feel my wrath." B proclaims with an evil sounding laugh.  
  
"B if you don't shut up I'm going to boot you so far into the swamp that even you won't be able to make your way back out again." Ranma growled.  
  
"Ha! You and what army?"   
  
"Now you two calm down and lets get to work, we will be here for a few days at least and we need to take out as many of these monstes as we can."  
  
"Yeah, tell that to the Transvestite here." Be laughs and takes off down the path as Ranma lunges for him.  
  
"What the heck is with that Peebo?" Sheila asks herself as she follows after them at a jog. Then boggles as B takes to water off to the side of the path and performs a little mecha configuration in mid air and lands in the form of a little boat and plays a loud nautical tune just to irritate Ranma.  
  
"Since when can you do that?" Ranma yells and throws a couple of rocks at B.  
  
"I always could, you were just to lazy to read the owners manual." B shot back and fired a couple laser blasts out of his eyes, but Ranma dodged them. Then his water gun raises out of his back and Ranma starts to sweat a little and glances over at a confused Sheila as she follows along. "Now let's see you dodge this Ranma!"  
  
"Oh Shit!"  
  
**********  
  
Onoli made his way through town following a path he only used once a month, as always he stood so tall that he was unmistakable in a crowd and everyone knew who he was the instant they saw him. His head and shoulders were visible even at the center of a large crowd of people, to tone things down a little he had adopted a cloak to wear while he was out of the compound. It helped to keep him covered and somewhat anonymous among all the people that populated Seer's Hamlet at any one time. People stepped out of his way as he moved and he quietly thanked them with a grin and wave as he moved by, being a werelion had it's advantages at times. When he had been in the Retreat with the others of his clan they had all been about the same size as him, but now that he was among the humans all the time he tended to stick out a bit more than he was used to. He considered himself a peaceful man by most standards and as the acting head of the local Edge Guard he had certain responsibilities to uphold. He had taken the time to train in some of the more daring forms of Martial Arts available on Jade and used Meditation to keep his soul pure.   
  
Less than a year ago his greatest friend and mentor Gaja had been killed, at the time Gaja had been the head of the Edge Guard with him as the field leader. Gaja was the magic user of the team, a very skilled practitioner that had been cut down by Tyrant and his gang of thugs. Gaja had died in his arms even as he passed the mantle of leadership over him. Rain, one of the legendary artifacts of the ancients and was so old that no one even knew its true history, just that it had a special power that few could use. It and it's brothers had been used to defeat the Shadows millennia before. He had used it's power to later avenge Gaja and learned how to wield the incredible amount of power the was available to him as the one that currently possessed the stone. Since then he had managed to gain even more control over it. He still wished that Gaja was still here to guide him, but that was impossible, he missed him and wanted to talk to somebody. The rest of the team tended to hang out together, but he had no one he could really call a friend at the moment, as leader he tended to be a bit of a loaner between missions. Spending a good portion of his time in training and making sure everybody on the team was constantly ready for anything that might arise. As the leader he had to set a certain example and he did that very well, but at times even he wanted to relax a little and with Tirga around that was simply impossible.   
  
Shaking his head he turned and spotted the Great Tree that dominated and supported Seer's Hamlet. It was the central focus of the spell that had created the pocket dimension that held the whole city. Most of Seer's Hamlet was built at the base of this great tree, it was where the Mage Council held it's meetings high above in the branches of the massive tree that rose thousands of feet into the sky. No one knew the trees age, but they figured that it had to be millions of years old to have grown so large and even after all that time it was still a thriving entity. Magic of the highest order had been cast over ever inch of the thing to make it hard to find unless you were shown the way or a member of the council itself or were a high powered mage. He'd spent ten years under Gaja before he even found out about the existence of the Great Tree and even today it's location was nothing but a legend to those that lived in Seer's Hamlet. There was a stair case spiraling hundreds of feet up into the thick branches of the tree.   
  
Here on the ground there was a small palace where about a hundred guards lived and trained constantly, protecting the only access way onto the stairs themselves. The people of Seer's Hamlet assumed that the small palace was were the Council actually made the rules adn major decisions that affected the city. Wizards and mages who could teleport could go directly to the main building built high above them, a twin to the small palace but on a far larger scale, but if you didn't know any you had to take the stairs. Taking out his badge of office, Onoli walked over to the first gate where a Paladin was standing at attention waiting for him to approach. This wasn't a Paladin like those that followed a religious order to ridiculous extremes, but part of a group of highly trained, magic using, battle mages that protected the council from any and all threats. They were all large, wore perfectly evil looking armor that gleamed in the sunlight, and were more dangerous than even some of the worst criminals. They never left their posts, so few in town truly knew just how good they were, but he had seen them at practice more than once over the last few months and knew the truth.   
  
"Your cleared to the next check point sir." The Paladin said and saluted.  
  
"Thank you." Onoli said and moved on towards the next gate. He had ten of these gates to get through and then a race up those stairs that he wasn't looking forward to this morning, not with the long day he had ahead of him now that Gar had vanished without getting his orders for the day. It usually took him over an hour using his werelion strength and speed to reach the top and that was a giant pain in the ass. He'd to do it once every two weeks now that he had taken over Gaja's position on the council as the Edge Guard liaison to the Council. Most of the mages that made up the council were a decent sort, if a bit eccentric at times. A few of them represented the darker types of magic and they had pushed through a rule a few centuries before stating that people that didn't' have any magic had to use the staircase to reach them and spent a pleasant few years laughing at those who didn't have power to teleport killing themselves on the staircase. It had later been amended to a year and after that they would hand out a ring that would automatically teleport them to the top of the stair case. They were usable by only the person they were given to and even then were only given out sparingly. The Council liked it's privacy and didn't want it disrupted by just anything that came along.  
  
Gaja had never had to use one because of his high level of magical ability, but because of the rule it meant that he had a few more months before he earned one for himself and wouldn't have to put up with this climb anymore. Luckily there was small fountain every hundred feet or so, installed by the more compassionate mages that didn't' like the rule, where a climber would rest if they wanted to and get some water. After passing the final gate, he bowed to the guard then turned and removed his cloak. Underneath he was wearing a pure white leather dress uniform, he rolled up his cloak and held it in his hand as he did a few minutes of stretching. The second he finished he shot forward at full speed and raced up the stairs four at a time and bounding up them as only a werelion could. One thing he had to admit to himself as he raced passed the first fountain was that this climb was enough of a work out to even tax his stamina, but all he had to do was stop and rest at the top for a couple of minutes and he would be back to normal courtesy of the magical water.   
  
Every time he did this he tried to beat his best time, which was fifty two minutes, but as he passed the final fountain some time later he was sure he was behind schedule. A couple of minutes later he passed over the final stair and slid to a halt as he landed on a walk way filled with benches for people to rest on and glanced at the sun. It had taken him fifty five minutes, which was about average really and decided that he would increase the pace a bit the next time he had to do this. flicking his wrist he unrolled his cloak and quickly donned it as he walked down the hall, his regenitive abilities already erasing the fatigue his run created. Passing out of the small rest area he found himself on a huge branch that was almost thirty feet wide all around and a little distance away there was a huge Palace built right into the side of the tree. This was the Mage Council's true home. By his count they should have been in session for a few hours now while they took care of the business that didn't concern him, the little day to day things that were required for any city to run.   
  
He approached the main entrance and two of the Paladins at the base of the steps came to attention. There were ten steps leading up the huge front doors to the place and there was an elaborately dressed Paladin standing on each end of the step eyeing him coldly. He presented his badge and nodded to them as he passed by. At the top of the steps was a sight he hadn't seen in a while and it surprised him more than a little, two female elves wearing slave collars kneeling on either side of the main door wearing next to nothing, even then they were excellent examples of their kind. Their presence meant that one of the dark ones had decided to show up for once, a rare occurrence to be sure. He still didn't like the dark wizards, but he had been told that even though they were somewhat evil people, they had proven themselves more than once to be loyal to the over all plan to keep Jade from falling back into the hands of the Shadows if they should ever reappear in these modern times.   
  
The door opened as he neared it and presented his badge to the final guardian just inside the main entrance. This was a fully grown ancient gold dragon who used the main hall as his lair and made sure no one but authorized people ever entered the palace. It was full of various items including a bed of gold coins that it used for a bed, dozens of chests full of jewels, scavenged armor, gifts from members of the council, and even an impressive art collection that covered the walls of the massive room. It's gigantic head lowed to the floor to get a better look at him and examine the badge and Onoli was almost positive that the dragon was doing more than that. At times he wondered if the thing was judging him in some way for every time they met he felt like he didn't quite stand up to the dragon's views on the subject. He noticed that it's eyes were a dark gold color with white flecks floating around in them as it used it's magic to run the final check. Then it smiled and showed of hundreds of huge and very pointy teeth. "Hello Onoli, I see you are still running up those stairs."  
  
"Hello Goldwave, how are you doing. Another few months and they should be giving me a ring so that I can teleport directly to the top of the stairs like everybody else does."  
  
"Heh, well have fun at the council if you can. Ol'Barrone is here for once and as usual not in a very good mood."  
  
"Any idea what prompted him to show up?"  
  
"No, but those girls outside came with him."  
  
"I saw them." Onoli said flatly.  
  
Goldwave nodded and grinned again, the iris's in his eyes spinning a little to show that he was amused. "You should have heard those two when they first arrived, they are more dedicated to him than some wives. They threw up such a fus when they were told that they couldn't enter the building. It seems they are his nurses as well as his slaves, you know Ol'Barrone is getting on years."  
  
"That's strange, did they do anything else?"  
  
"Nope, Ol'Barrone got a good laugh out of it though and just shooed them outside where they sat down and haven't moved since. It's like their strings were cut or they can't function when he's not about."  
  
"Thanks for the info Goldwave."  
  
Goldwave nodded and moved back over to his bed of gold and curled up to catch some more sleep, it would be a few hours yet before he had to leave and go out to hunt for his supper and he wanted to have a good flight. After moving out of the large hall, Onoli heads up some more stairs and enters the main part of the building where a dozen more Paladin guard the next set of doors that lead into the council chamber. There are a few mages standing around near the open doors talking to each other as he approaches, but they don't even seem to see him for one reason or another. Then he saw the one person he hadn't expected to see, Julia Brigand Diggers sitting lazily on one of the benches by the door watching Dr. Diggers as he's talking to a couple of friends. She recognized him as he walked toward them and stood up with a smile. Onoli bowed to her as he saw that Dr. Diggers was discussing something about a decision the council had just made.  
  
"Hello Julia, it's good to see you again."   
  
"Onoli, it's been a while, how's the Edge Guard doing these days?" Julia asked.  
  
"Pretty good, were still recovering from when we lost Gaja and without a decent magic user we aren't as effective."  
  
"Have they made any decisions on who might be replacing Gaja?"  
  
"Nope, there just aren't any more Mages available with his level of experience and a few have even suggested that Thropan take over the duties, but he's got enough to do as it is. The few others have been suggested so far but they just haven't fit in with the team, I've been asking for another Werecat of some kind with mage abilities, but those are even harder to find since most of them are already assigned elsewhere. I was going to suggest that we check with the Council that oversees the Retreat if they had anyone that wanted to join us voluntarily."  
  
Julia nodded. "That sounds like a good idea, they don't like it when a were leaves the Retreat, but for this they might make an exception. Have you thought about asking Seance?"  
  
"Who's he?"  
  
"He's one of my husband's apprentices and a very skilled Aura Mage, though he is human."  
  
"I'm not sure if that would work out really." Onoli said, actually considering the suggestion, anyone trained by an Archmage of Dr. Diggers skill had to have some skills to back them up.  
  
"Why is that?"  
  
"Our team is sort of specialized and that is causing problems that don't normally happen in other teams."  
  
"Oh?"   
  
"Yep, Gar has been a bit of a problem lately." Onoli said with a sigh. "I'm kind of used to it with Tirga, he's always been a bit of a loose cannon, but his heart is usually in the right place when he's needed the most. Gar on the other hand has been acting strange lately, that's why I'm glad I ran into you, I was hopping you could talk to him and find out what is wrong."  
  
"What's he been doing? Gar is usually your second in command and I'm kind of surprised he isn't here with you, since he's the reason I'm here."  
  
Onoli raised his eyebrows a bit at that. "He's been having problems with the people that Sheila is going out with, especially with that new student of yours, Ranma Saotome."  
  
"You're kidding, I talked to him about that a couple months ago and he said he'd back down. Is he still trying to break them up?"  
  
With a sigh Onoli nodded. "It's worse than that, he's starting to become obsessed with the idea that Ranma is stealing his sister away from him. He even sneaks out at night to follow Sheila just to make sure she isn't going out to see him or some other guy."  
  
"He's never been that over protective and with Ranma, at the time anyway, still with me and Theo in Earth Realm, he shouldn't have had to worry."  
  
"It started the same day that Sheila told everyone that Ranma was coming to participate in her little 'hunt' out on the edge of the Black Moir Swamp, where the forest is being slowly being taken over by the water."  
  
"I've been there a few times, there are some nasty monsters out there if you aren't careful, but Ranma and Sheila are both good enough that they can take care of themselves."  
  
"Normally I would agree, but Gar followed after Sheila and Ranma this morning just after they left and hasn't reported back in to me or the compound and hit has me worried. What did you want to see Gar about?"  
  
"Oh, Luan will be away for a few more months training, I wanted let him know about it so he didn't worry since she's taking an advanced course from that guy she's training under. He was supposed to be here with you, now it looks like I will have to find him and knock a little sense into him."  
  
"Just be careful Julia."   
  
"Oh I will, he's a good fighter, but there is no way he can beat me yet." Julia said with a smirk.  
  
"I certainly hope so."  
  
A Paladin stepped out of the council chamber and looked around until he spotted Onoli. "Master Onoli, the council will see you now."  
  
"Thank you." Onoli said as he nodded goodbye to Julia and stepped into the chambers and shut the doors behind him."  
  
Dr. Diggers, who had just finished with his portion of the council finished up his talk with his friend, a tall man wearing a very black robe and golden colored skin. They shook hands and parted, the stranger heading for the teleport area and Theo stepping over to his wife. "So what did Onoli have to say?"  
  
"It seems there is something wrong with Gar."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"He wasn't sure what it is, but there is something about Ranma that Gar doesn't like and he's been over protective of Sheila, almost to the point of an obsession."  
  
"That doesn't sound like him at all, any ideas?" Theo asked.  
  
"Not at the moment, but I need to get a look at him before I can even guess what is going on and he's all the way over on the far edge of Black Moir Swamp."  
  
"We can go there right now if you want to..." Theo said. "Lets just step on over to the teleport area, no need to set off any of the alarms in here after all."  
  
**********  
  
"AGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" Tirga screamed as the scene replayed in his mind again and again.   
  
He'd just run into the men's public bath house to see if the girl would actually follow him in there while waving that large sword around. Grinning he'd run down the short hall and into the bath itself with the girl on his heels the whole way. Then the whole plan had gone to hell and he couldn't have predicted this one even if he'd been a precog with perfect abilities, how could someone predict it? About a dozen men had looked up as he slammed the door open and ran straight into the large heated pool of hot water that was used to relax after a hard days work. It was only mid morning so there weren't all that many people there to see his shame, but enough to make him whimper even now.  
  
That female werecheetah hadn't opened the door, no, she had slashed it off it's hinges and shattered the rest of it with a well placed kick as she stalked into the room and glared around in fury. There was another door to the room on the other side of the large furo and he was making his way over to it when she entered, the rest of the guys in the room cringed a little as the girl stalked past them with that giant sword and knew better than to even say anything at all. Those guys that didn't bother to cover themselves were a bit disappointed when the girl didn't even seem to see them, her rage was focused completely on him and at the time that was how he had wanted it.  
  
Tirga shuddered and wanted to throw up again. Then he remembered what he'd said to her and wondered why he wasn't dead or castrated, especially after that remark. "Hey baby, let me show what a real man can do in a place like this." Leer.  
  
Then she had entered the heated water and his world shattered as she seemed to grow over a foot in height and turn into a really pissed off guy, a male werecheetah, still pissed off and coming for his head. The sight had struck the rest of the guys in the room like a ton of bricks, but to him it was worse. He'd come on to the girl/guy and been making suggestions for the whole run here, things that he could do and how they worked on all the girls he'd met. Then he/she had pointed that huge sword with it's red blade at him, the one that fit this form a lot better than the other one. "You are a dead man you perverted little @$$#@)3."  
  
He couldn't only scream as the full reality of the change in the guy's gender finally penetrated his mind, threw up, and fainted as he looked beyond the thing and saw that Thropan entered the room and saw the whole thing. Now he was laid out on a bench in the locker room with a blanket over him and shivering in shock and disgust. Never, he never wanted to go through anything like that again. He could live with being beaten up by a good looking girl, but the idea that he'd made a pass at a guy just made him want hurl. Thropan was sitting nearby snickering at him ever few minutes and had been forced to leave the room on a couple of occasions already so he could let it out. Even worse was that the thing was there as well, the shape changer who had introduced him to the worst beating he'd had to endure in months. It seemed his name was Ashaton Chaos.  
  
Thropan snickered some more and hunched over to control his laughing fit. "So, stud, how's it feel to expand your tastes a little? BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"  
  
"You sick &%$# I'm going to kill you for that!" Tirga yelled and lunged for his supposed friend and fell off the bench.  
  
"He nearly beat you to death with a really big one too! HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!"  
  
"AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" Tirga screamed and lunged for Thropan again and ended up slamming his head into the wall as the werepanther just dodged out of the way while still laughing.  
  
Thropan fell down at Tirga's feet. "Take it like a MAN! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!"  
  
Ashaton sighed and let the two guys get it out of their system, he would have taken off all together if they hadn't both been member so of the Edge Guard. He hadn't even had time to tell them about the Compound yet and it's complete destruction. Though he did plan to leave out that he'd been the one to send it to it's ultimate demise, they didn't need to know that little detail. "Um...guys, I really need to tell you something."  
  
Tirga groaned, this had to be the worst day in his life. First he's attacked by some walking tin cans, then gets chased halfway across the city by an enraged shape changer, now it wanted to talk to them. What else could go wrong, he didn't want to know how much worse this day was going to get. He rose to his feet, ignoring Ashaton completely as he moved to walk out of the locker room. Now all he just wanted to get home and sleep the rest of this day away or find a girl and hire her for a few hours. That was an idea he could life with and he knew it would make him feel a whole lot better. It would also keep Thropan from spending the rest of the day laughing at him, that laugh of his was beginning to get on his nerves.  
  
"So are male or female?" Thropan asked Ashaton.  
  
"Male, I've had this curse most of my life so I'm kind of used to it, but I still prefer girls."   
  
Thropan nodded, snickered, and started laughing again as Tirga brushed past him and stalked out of the room. "So what did you want to talk about?"  
  
"Well I was looking for one of the Edge Guard when I ran into Tirga there..." Ashaton started.  
  
"Ran into...HAHAHAHAHAH!"   
  
Ashaton rolled his eyes. "Um...anyway, there was little incident at your compound a little while ago."  
  
"Oh?" Thropan asked as he stopped laughing.  
  
"It isn't very good news either."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"I'm afraid that Raphiel was either kidnapped or killed."  
  
Thropan blinked and paled. "He's dead?"  
  
Ashaton shrugged. "I think so, I happened to be in the area when those Undead Knights attacked the compound. We managed to hold them off for a little while, but in the end I was knocked unconscious and when I woke up he was gone." **  
  
With a loud sigh Thropan nodded, his good mood at seeing Tirga in a position like that completely gone to hell. "I need to see the Compound to see if we can find his body, if not, then we need to find Onoli and tell him about it."  
  
"What about the others? Do we need to gather all of them together?"  
  
"Yes, but for now we just need to put them on alert and we need Onoli to send out the word." Thropan said as he started to head out of the room. "You're caught up in this and Onoli will need to talk to you I think, so you might as well come along."  
  
"What about Sheila?"  
  
"You know her?" Thropan asked in surprise.  
  
"Yeah, I helped her out last night." Ashaton explained. "After we get to the compound I need to see if my cloak survived the fire when the training hall collapsed."  
  
Thropan blinked in surprise, but didn't say anything as they left the bath house. They continued this way for most of the walk back to the compound and neither of the could fail to see the rising tower of black smoke rising into the sky from where the compound used to be. They rounded the final turn and came upon Tirga gazing in shock at the leveled remains of their home and base. From the level of the fire it was clear that they wouldn't even be able to get near it, the magical wards that had been placed by Gaja so long ago had activated to protect the forest and houses that were to close to the compound. The flames were being confined to what was left of the compound itself and letting it burn out. Thropan had forgotten all about them and he'd even helped to craft and install them over five years ago.  
  
"What happened?" Tirga asked in shock.  
  
"A battle according to your friend here, some Undead Knights attacked the place after we all left this morning to kill or kidnap Raphiel."  
  
"Why would they kidnap Raphiel? He wasn't even a full member yet and...oh..." Tirga muttered.  
  
"He was the weakest of us all." Thropan stated.  
  
"So he's probably dead then. Was it just Undead Knights or something else?" Tirga asked.  
  
"There was a girl leading them, but I never did get her name, she was wearing this green armor, showing a lot of skin, had this funky looking spear and was giving orders to the Undead Knights."  
"Sounds like Hanza, she's been getting more and more bold in her attacks lately. We're going to have to track her down and punish her for this." Thropan said.  
  
"I think we have other things to worry about right now. Two things to be exact..." Ashaton said as he pointed back into the city where several more columns of smoke were rising into the sky.  
  
"What's the other thing?" Thropan asked.  
  
"Them." Ashaton and motioned with his chin to the other side of the flaming wreckage where four columns of Undead Skeletons were marching out of the woods. They were silent as death itself, they had on basic armor and were carrying old rusty swords in their bony hands as they moved. Off to the side was an Undead Knight in black armor on a horse leading them straight into the city.  
  
"Oh &%$#." Tirga snapped as they all pulled out their weapons. "It's a large scale attack."  
  
"Ashaton, I want you to run to the Palace on the far side of the city. There will be several armored men out in front of the entrance gate. Tell them that there is an undead army attacking the city and that we need the city militia gathered." Thropan said in an icy calm voice.  
  
"Right, right." Ashaton said and using the full speed of his werecheetah form headed right for the palace. He didn't even hear the sonic boom as he passed the sound barrier, but a lot of people did and it saved allowed several people to save their lives as column after column of undead skeletons and zombies began to enter the city from every direction. He just hoped that he made it in time and that these guys would have enough time to throw together some kind of defense or this whole city was going to go up in flames by the end of the day. With that though he picked up speed and set off a second sonic boom and didn't even notice the large dust cloud forming behind him as he ran.  
  
**********  
  
Black Moir Swamp was one of those places that reminded Ranma of a training ordeal he had gone through under his old man some years before. He didn't really want to think of the midnight runs through the swamp with a large couch on his back, his old man asleep on top, and a pack of wolves chasing after him everywhere he went. Instead he was being reminded of a few things that had happened after that, namely the strange animal attacks. Back when he was ten and running through the swamp he had been forced to deal with wolves, large snakes, and flesh eating fish that went for one's toes. This place was no different it seemed, so far Sheila had lopped the head off of three snakes that couldn't have been less than thirty feet long and killed two alligators. He was amazed at just how fast she could draw and attack with that magical attack of hers, the feel of the magic as it swirled around them just before it was released was quite an experience for him.  
  
He was feeling a little left out though, he hadn't taken down anything yet and it was getting on his nerves. So he was stepping through the shallow water as carefully as he could with his sword, the one he had gotten from Gina that was stored in his bracer, at the ready. Behind him Sheila was moving with such grace and stealth that he couldn't even hear her move, but whenever he looked back to see if she was okay she would be just a couple steps behind and smile at him. It was making him nervous, like he was being hunted or something. Another thing that he had nearly forgotten about was his curse, it rarely activated, but when it did the thing caused him no end of trouble. The water they were moving through wasn't that cold and he couldn't figure out why. He had been several steps into the swampy water before he remembered about the curse at all, being distracted at the time by B firing streams of water at him. So why wasn't he sporting a nice pair on his chest and missing something down below as Sheila called him names?  
  
That little robot was being a pest too, floating around on the water and occasionally more water at him. So far he'd been able to dodge all of it, but Sheila was starting to wonder why he even tried to dodge the water even after a couple hours of it. Be was just about fifty feet away amusing himself at the moment, but Ranma knew the thing would be back to torment him some more eventually. The thing had a limited attention span, but that and the constant attacks were making it hard for him to keep his magical abilities bottled up. He had come close to throwing a fire ball at the him on a few occasions already, but Sheila had stopped him. Now he just wanted to get back on some solid ground and dry off a bit.   
  
"There's a bit of dry ground up ahead Ranma, let's take a break when we get there." Sheila said.   
  
B came out of nowhere and fired another stream of water at Ranma, bit it was dodged as quickly as it had been fired. "&%$#!"  
  
"B you cut that out!" Sheila yelled as the little robot sped away.  
  
"I doubt he will listen Sheila, he's having fun and he won't listen to anyone when he's like this." Ranma muttered as they made their way over to small island like bit of land and gave a bit of thanks as he stepped back onto some solid land and grabbed onto a low hanging tree to pull himself up the seep embankment. At least he thought it was a low hanging tree branch, and now that he had millisecond to think about it, why was it hanging down like a rope and slightly curved? He heard Sheila gasp just he realized it was a medium sized snake that dropped it's head out of the tree and swung it's head around to bite him. Reflexes took over and he snapped the snake like a whip and banged it's head against the tree, the one he thought he had been reaching for, and tossed it over his shoulder like yesterdays garbage. He saw that Sheila was putting her sword back and glaring at him. "What?"  
  
"You have to be more careful, there are dangerous animals all around us and you are playing games like this."  
  
"But..."  
  
"Pay more attention or you will be dead. That snake was a Black mamba like they have in the Earth Realm where you come from and one of the deadliest snakes in the entire world. It's bite would have killed you in less than 2 minutes, this swamp and the magic in the very air make things twist and mutate into some really dangerous animals. Where do you think the Bog Threshers came from?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah." He grumbled.  
  
"Don't be like that, just be more careful Ranma. I don't want to be the one that has to drag you all the way back to Nali's clinic because you didn't take this place seriously enough."  
  
Muttering to himself, Ranma moved a little further onto the solid ground and helped Sheila up the small muddy embankment. Then what he was worrying about happened, Sheila reached out and grabbed the tree and gave it a hard yank as she pulled herself up beside them. The tree was covered in a thin layer of morning dew that was very at home in this wet climate, water came raining down on them. Ranma's eyes widened in shock as he felt his body suddenly shift and morph into his female form while holding Sheila's hand. Compensating instantly he managed to adjust his pack before she fell over, but not before Sheila saw the change and gasped in shock.  
  
"Ah &%$#!" Ranma screamed and slumped over.  
  
"R-Ra-Ranma? Is that you?"  
  
"Hey, I thought you were human. How come you didn't tell me you were a shape changer?" She asked as she examined his now female hand and new body.  
  
Poke, poke.  
  
"Um...huh?" Ranma squeaked out, she wanted to run and get away as fast as she could, but Sheila wouldn't stop poking her chest to see if they were real.  
  
"What are you looking so scared for? Why didn't you tell me you could change your shape like this? I'm a werejaguar you know, I have two other forms I can shift to whenever I want."  
  
Ranma stopped struggling, he kept forgetting that Sheila could change shape, he was so used to her werejaguar hybrid form that it just slipped his mind. "I..."  
  
"This is so cool! Can you shift to a mix form between male and female? Or are you like a Rakasha who can change into any shape they want to please their partner? Or an illusionist who can create any image they want?"   
  
Grope, Grope. "You're even bigger than me, I'm so jealous!"  
  
"It's a CURSE!" Ranma yelled and why did the name Rakasha sound so familiar, like she had heard it somewhere else?  
  
Sheila poked Ranma's breasts a few more times just for the fun of it and grinned at Ranma's discomfort. That little robot's actions were beginning to make a little more sense now that this had happened. "A curse huh? I know of at least ten guys back at Seer's hamlet that would give their entire fortunes for a chance to change into a girl like this."  
  
"Hey, don't do that. It happened back on Earth, during a fight with this guy named Daishi, he got the better of me and knocked me into this cursed spring, when I got out I looked like this."  
  
"Hey cool! Where the same height now." Sheila said with a giggle. "How do you change back?"  
  
"Hot water will reverse it, but we might as well wait until we leave the swamp now that I've changed. Every time we hit cold water this is going to happen."  
  
"Why didn't it happen before now? That swamp water is cold, very cold." Sheila asked and glanced back the way they had come and shivered a little.  
  
"No it wasn't, that's what was bothering me, that water was cool, but not cold enough to activate my curse."  
  
"Ranma that water that just fell on you is just as cold as the water we were walking through, maybe colder since it hadn't been warmed by the sunlight yet."  
  
"Then how come it didn't activate my curse?" Ranma asked.   
  
B skimmed across the water and beached himself on the one bit of beach that the small bit of land had and converted back into his wheeled form and raced up to Ranma. "Boss we got problems heading this way."  
  
"Boss?"  
  
She didn't get a chance to say anything else as there was a roar of some kind out in the swamp, this was quickly followed by several others and she saw Sheila's eyes widen and her hand flexed and Ice Fang appeared in her hand. Half turning, Ranma half a second to flex her own hand and bring her sword back into existence just as she hopped back on instinct and back fisted the attacking Bog Thresher that must have been hiding somewhere in the trees around them. It's head whipped back so hard there was a loud snapping sound as it seemed to raise up on it's tail, hold for a second and before it fell to the ground and rolled into the swamp water below and lay still. Ranma turned back to Sheila and raised an eyebrow. "So how come the water didn't activate my curse?"  
  
"How in the world did you do that?! One simple blow and that thing is dead as can be? I've seen Tirga or a werewolf do something like that, but never a simple normal human! You're a girl too, you should have been at an even bigger disadvantage." Sheila gasped out, she'd nearly dropped her sword in shock.  
  
"I'm a fully trained martial artist Sheila, that was a simple Ki enhanced back fist attack, I've performed it thousands of times." Ranma said with a shrug and smirked knowingly. Then she spotted something she hadn't ever seen in her life and wondered what it could be. "What the heck is that thing?"  
  
Sheila, who had already had enough shocks today barely raised an eyebrow and said mildly. "It's an zombie I think, one of the local farmers most likely since it's wearing those tacky clothes and staggering around with that hoe in its hand.   
  
"You don't sound all that scared." Ranma noted.  
  
"A single zombie? That's like being afraid of a single mouse, it's a little dangerous, bit they are so stupid that defeating them is pretty easy. There's been some guy raising the dead like this for years, we've just never been able to capture him."  
  
"Um...should it be here?"   
  
"Nope, we kill it and release it's trapped soul so it can have a little piece."  
  
"How do you kill it?"  
  
Sheila raised her sword. "We hack it to pieces until it can't move no more or burn it into a fine powder."  
  
"Um...right." Ranma said with a sweat drop forming on the back of her head and eyed Sheila a little differently.  
  
"Oh, Oh! Ranma's quaking in her pants now, so drop them because I want to see what kind of panties your wearing before you start fighting with all that 'talent' floating around!" B yelled suddenly and let off an evil laugh. Maybe he'd been wrong about the danger heading this way if these things were that easy to defeat.  
  
"B!" Ranma yelled as the undead farmer shuffled toward them at an incredibly slow pace. She turned to Sheila and grinned. "So you up for lunch before this guy gets here? At this rate it's going to take at least ten minutes before he even starts to climb up to where we are and those fish eating his legs seem to be having a fine ol'time too."  
  
"Hey you two, look over that way." B says and tries to point with his head and eyes.  
  
They turn to see a wave of undead animals, beavers, fish, gators, and a whole host of other slimy looking things swarming for their little island through the swamp water. Sheila slashes with her sword and sends out a wave of Icy magic, it slams into the swarm of animals and takes out about a dozen or so, but there are hundreds more it doesn't touch and they just ignore the frozen bodies within seconds they are stomped into the swamp under thousands of little paws and legs. Ranma concentrates on the one spell she's been wanting to cast all day long, forms a ball of fire at the tip of her finger and combines tiny bit of Ki into the spell pattern. The fireball flies out and expands to over twenty feet around, blows Ranma off her feet, knocks over several trees and slams into the oncoming wall of undead animals.  
  
"Ah &%$# I added to much to it, get down!" Ranma yells as she moves behind a nearby tree. It explodes with the force of several boxes of TNT and Sheila dives for cover behind another tree and B hides behind Ranma. A wave of heat and charred corpses rains over the island for several seconds. "Oops !"  
  
"Ranma! What the heck just happened?!" Sheila yelled, she was used to magic users but that was a bit to much even for her.  
  
"Eh hehehehe I just used a bit to much magic." Ranma explained with a shrug. "I got them didn't I?"  
  
Sheila looked back at where a large bonfire was burning among the trees and shook her head. "No, you just routed them away from us, there's still to many to count out there and if you look off in the distance there they are starting to come at us from a different direction. How many of those can you cast before you run out of energy?"  
  
"I don't know, I'm still new at this, but I can manage several more easily."  
  
They moved away from the trees, Ranma picked B up and handed to Sheila to store in her pack. "B you stay in there for now, that way I know where you are."  
  
"Sure thing Boss." B said with a nod.  
  
Looking around the small island proved that there wasn't anywhere that they could defend and counter attack these things at the same time. That mean that they would have to find one, and quick or they would both be dead. Ranma was beginning to understand what Sheila meant about one of them being easy to defeat and the implication that more than one was incredibly dangerous. This was Ranma's first undead attack so he didn't quite know what to do just yet, but that didn't last long as Sheila came up with a plan and motioned for him to follow as she jumped into the trees and headed away from the island at high speed. B was glad to be in Sheila's pack, there was no way he'd have been able to keep up with them in his current form and he did have a job to perform after all.  
  
"We have to get out of here, there's way to many of them to fight right now!" Sheila yelled.  
  
"What about that slow one we left back there?"  
  
"If they were all that slow we wouldn't have any problems getting away." Sheila yelled as she started tree hopping, looking for anything that might give them an advantage.  
  
Ranma followed close behind her, keeping her tail in sight as she moved through the trees. "Do you have any idea where they are coming from?"  
  
"No, there is usually a wizard around somewhere, but I don't see one anyone near here so they must under the control of something powerful." Sheila yelled back as they left the area still using the trees, and moved deeper into the swamp. The undead animals could bee seen moving through the swamp all around them in huge undulating masses, trying to catch up and cut them off. Ranma stopped in one tree, took a second to form another fireball and launched it out into the closes mass he could see, the explosion leveled dozens of trees and vaporized a hundred or so undead. It barely slowed them as another group jus swarmed around the fire and continued to follow them. Sheila was positive that something was controlling these things in some way, but she had no clue what do about it. She recalled her fight with those Undead Knights just the night before and wondered if both of these situation could have been directed at her for some reason.  
  
"We have to do something Sheila, I don't like running from these things, and if I use my fireball again those things need to be in a bigger group! I fire off several more, but they're all around us, I can't get them all." Ranma yelled as he took off after Sheila again and glanced back to see the hoard of undead things surging after them. Her fireball hadn't even slowed them, in fact it seemed that it might have stirred them up somewhat, like poking an ant hill with a large stick. These things had all been in hiding, but now they were everywhere and they wanted to catch both of them.  
  
"I'm open to ideas Ranma!" Sheila yelled back as she rebounded off a particular tree and sailed into the air for several yards before resuming her tree hopping. Ranma followed close behind her, somewhat amazed that she could move like this when even on earth it was really rare skill for anyone to have. She grinned and just went with flow, they were in danger and had thousands of undead things on their tail and she was starting to have fun. Then he reminded himself that she was a werecat and that she was probably tapping into some of her abilities and that this hybrid form had all the flexibility and speed of a real Jaguar. He was just catching up to her when she spotted something and changed direction by bounding off another tree. Ranma followed along as best she could and they were able to make some good time through the trees for the next several minutes. She noticed that the were slowly increasing the distance between them and the undead animals as well and wondered where they would go if they did lose them. They reached a series of trees suddenly and jumped into a clearing that was filled with swamp water for hundreds of feet in every direction with a large hill of mud rising up from the center like an ant hill of some kind. They landed here with a loud splat and sank a few inches into the mud of the island. It seemed to be the only land in the area and it was covered in small bushes and fist sized rocks.   
  
"We seem to have lost those things for the time being, what is this place Sheila?" Ranma asked as she glanced around. This place was a little more defensible because it was a lot smaller than the other island, but she didn't think they would be able to hold that hoard off form long.  
  
Sheila frowned as she looked down at her outfit and all the mud that she had gotten on her outfit, it was even in her fur. She tried to brush it away as best she could and glanced over at Ranma. "I'm not sure, I don't recognize this area so it might be something new that sprang up in the last few months. This is a swamp, they can change the way they look almost overnight if it rains or something weird happens. Those fireballs of yours are going to change the way the swamp looks by the time the fire dies down."  
  
Nodding, Ranma just glanced around as she suddenly felt a pair of eyes on her again and hears a voice.  
  
"This is the 'Forbidden Heart' of Black Moir Swamp." Says a mans voice from behind them.  
  
They spin around to see a mud covered man step out of a nearby cave that Ranma hadn't even noticed, she curses to herself for being so lax and wonders if this guy is going to be a problem. It takes few seconds to look beyond the thick covering of mud, but Sheila is surprised to see that it's her brother Gar as he steps forward to meet them. "Gar?!"  
  
"Sister." Gar says with a grin.  
  
Almost instantly Ranma can tell that something was wrong with the guy he had met before just a few weeks before, something he couldn't quite put his finger on though. The guy's eyes were flickering around the area like Ranma remembered his father's eyes doing whenever he was looking for trouble, his senses on high alert for any kid of attack. The other thing that struck him as odd was that Gar was wearing a simple loin cloth caked with as much mud as he had on his body. Looking over at Sheila he could tell that she knew something was wrong as well, though she seemed to be quite surprised by this current change in her brother.   
  
"Gar! What are you doing here and what the hell are you wearing?!" Sheila yelled. "You should be taking care of those bandits in the southern part of the valley today."  
  
"No today sister, I've got something else to take care of, this place is very special and can be dangerous if you aren't careful enough." Gar said with a smirk as he slowly walked towards them. "As for my clothes, I had to go cat for a little while and didn't have time to take them off so they were destroyed. I managed to save enough for a loin cloth though so I'm fine. Please get out of the way, me and this boy have a bit of talking to do."  
  
"Huh?" Sheila asks, she's never heard her brother talk in that tone of voice before. So cold that it would have made Ice Fang look tame.  
  
Gar stops a few yards from Ranma and glares at him, clenches his fists in anger, and snarls. "You! I knew you were a danger to my sister the instant I saw your transformation back there on the little island! I won't let you have perverted ways with her anymore, I will kill you first!"   
  
"Huh?" Sheila gasps.  
  
"Wha?" Ranma mutters as he takes a closer look at the seven foot tall, chiseled muscles of a fully mature werejaguar glaring at him with hatred. The claws on Gar's hands slowly extending out and gleaming in the poor lighting in the swamp as he takes up a stance that Ranma has seen Julia use before. One that has proven to be his downfall in more than one practice match over the last few months, getting her into a position to throw him into the side of the house using her feet. Glaring, Ranma prepares for battle, he can see enough hated in Gar's eyes to know that this will be an all or nothing match and that he will have to be prepared for anything Julia has used against him so far.   
  
Gar intended to kill him and because there was no way he could use his magic against the guy he would have to depend on his Martial Arts. Grinning, Ranma knew the next few minutes were going to be quite dangerous, but also a lot of fun if he went all out. He wondered what fighting an enraged werecat would be like and if the Neko-ken would be of any help in this fight. "Bring it on goof ball."  
  
"Gar! What are you doing?!" Sheila yells as she runs forward to stop him and got the surprise of her life as her brother, the man who had taken care of her ever since their parents had been killed, back handed her away like an annoying fly. She gasped in shock and completely forgot about her in his rage as she landed in a nearby bush to watch in amazement at her brother attacked Ranma. Shooting forward as only an enraged werecat could, moving so fast that he could barely be seen. Snarling and roaring as he ran, his hand spread out, his claws passing through the air in some kind of berserk rage Gar attacked Ranma.  
  
More than willing to protect herself and get in a blow or two for what Gar had just done to his own sister, Ranma dodges Gar's blows effortlessly, taking advantage of his female forms natural speed and dexterity. "Why exactly are you attacking me again? This just doesn't make any sense to me."  
  
Gar ignored Ranma and simply snarled in rage, increasing the speed of his attacks, though not really using much in the way of martial arts any more. This was a big surprise to Ranma because of the stance Gar had started out in, but she kept his guard up as she weaved around the quick but poorly executed attacks. "Can we talk about this, if I beat the crap out of you right in front of Sheila she might take it the wrong way. Be a good kitty and lets talk this out before I have to hurt you." Ranma said as she dodged, twitched, jumped, and blocked the various attacks sent at her with ease. The guy wasn't using any of his skills at all, just trying to overpower her and take her down with nothing but his strength. Against Ranma that was a mistake that could only be made once.  
  
"You will DIE!" Gar yelled and suddenly started to use a bit more of his martial arts skills and almost caught Ranma off guard and managed to get a blow to the head that sent Ranma flying back and into the ground face first. She rolled to her feet just as Gar decended on her from above and slammed his fist into the mud where her chest had been a half second before and buried his arm clear up to the elbow.  
  
"That was a pathetic attack Nature Boy, my pop could do better than that." Ranma taunted him.  
  
"AGHAAAAAAAAAA! I WILL MAKE YOU PAY!" Gar screamed like an insane banshee and ripped his arm out of the ground.  
  
"For what?" Ranma asked mildly, getting more than a little annoyed with the guy as she dodged a series of punches and kicks. Her patients could only last so long and it was getting to the point that she would to start and really fight back.  
  
"Gar! Stop this!" Sheila yelled from where she had landed, still shocked about what had happened and beginning to realize that something was really, really wrong with GAr. "Ranma, what's wrong with him?!"  
  
"How should I know? He just started attacking me! He's got a screw loose or something and he's beginning to tick me off!" Ranma yelled as she grabbed Gar's arm and used it as a spring board to flip over the guy and land behind him. She kept an eye on the guy as she circled around him and noticed that he was just standing there, slightly slumped over looking completely insane. She almost swore that he had a line of drool hanging off the side of his chin, but with all that much covering his body he wasn't really sure. 'This might be kind of fun, I wonder what else he might be capable of if pushed clear to the edge and possibly beyond?' Ranma wondered to herself as she took up a more defensive stance. "I'm going to have to take him down Sheila."  
  
"Ranma, don't you dare hurt my brother! There's something wrong with him, we have to reverse it somehow."  
  
"How the heck am I supposed to fight him if I don't fight back Sheila? He is trying to kill me you know!"  
  
"Just do it, knock him out or something. Just don't hurt him by using magic or anything like that."  
  
"I wasn't planning to use magic anyway, this a marital arts fight and it would be like cheating if I was to even think about it."  
  
Ranma relaxed and channeled a bit more of the environmental Ki she'd been gathering throughout her body just as Master Julia had been instructing her to. Though now that she'd had a bit of time to train under Dr. Diggers she knew how to use Ki on a whole new level of skill and knowledge. She had noticed that that Aura magic was simply Ki and magic combined into a kind of flowing dance to weave the spells together and it was quite possible that she could have used the magic against Gar if she wanted to. That would have gone against her sense of honor though and even in a life or death match like this she wasn't willing to take that chance. So she turned her Ki senses on Gar to see just what the guy's Ki would tell him and found that he was giving off a somewhat odd looking aura that was nearly identical to the one that Sheila and all werecreatures seemed to generated at times.   
  
As far as she could tell there was nothing wrong with the guy, he just seemed to be really pissed off about something, but the oddest thing was that his aura was 'normal', almost to normal. It didn't show any of the feelings the guy was currently showing, like anger, obsession, or even just plain insanity. Where there should have been the reddish black of anger, there were signs of deep meditation and peace and Ranma had no idea how one could make their aura look different than it should or why anyone would want to do it in the first place. Ranma adjusted her stance, she needed to test this guy out a little more to see just what he had in mind. She shot forward and started to use a basic Anything Goes combo that would have tested the speed and dexterity of any fighter.   
  
Gar just grinned as Ranma started to throw the occasional punch, dodged a couple of spin kicks, and tested his defenses. He shook his long hair for a couple of seconds so that it left over half his face hidden with only a pair of glowing eyes looking out at Ranma. A grin, half mad and evil, formed on the guys lips as he jumped back a few yards and crackling energy began to swirl around his body and drying out the mud almost instantly. With a growl Gar's energy increased in power and his muscles bulked up to over double their original size.   
  
Ranma heard Sheila gasp as Gar's body changed and an aura of power formed around him. His claws darkened into a solid black and a pulse of power washed over the area. Growling, Ranma cursed her luck as she stepped back a couple of feet and wondered for the thousandth time why it was she kept running into really, really strong opponents lately. She reminded herself once again that she was strong enough to take this guy out and that holding back and playing with him was not an option. Losing was not an option, not any more, she would not accept defeat at the hands of anyone ever again. What ever this guy had just done looked like it was going to make fighting him a lot harder than it had been so far, that meant she would have to use her strongest technique. If Gar was able to defeat her while she used it she would be surprised, so far she hadn't had a reason to tap the full technique and hoped that it would stay that way. Taking a deep breath Ranma found her center, changed her stance once again, and dropped over so that it looked like she was standing on all fours and released the hold she kept on the Neko-ken and let a bit of its strength run throughout her body.  
  
"Ranma what are you doing?!" Sheila asked, still having problems understanding the situation, but knowing just how powerful this technique was since she'd helped him master it just a few weeks before. "You promised not to hurt him!"  
  
"Meow!" Was all Ranma said as she sniffed the air and felt the power pulsing off of Gar just a few yards away.  
  
With a loud growl Gar shot forward with his clawed hands leading the way, his mud covered body glistened as it was showing off every stretch and pull of his muscles as they moved to do his bidding. Ranma just hissed as she let the cat take over and rolled out of the way of Gar's initial slash as it ripped up the dirt right where Ranma had been kneeling seconds before. She rolled back to her feet and came around to face Gar once more, as her face took on a childlike innocence as she sat back like a cat on its back legs and swiped her fingers at Gar. Four wide arcs of whitish energy flew out of her hand and slammed into him, sending Gar flying back with a scream of pain.  
  
"GAR!!" Sheila yelled, but Ranma jumped on front of her when she tried to go to her brother and refused to let her get near him. "Let me go to him Ranma!"  
  
"...nNnnnnnooo, Sheeellliaa, brotherrrr...faking...." Ranma tried to get out, but in the throws of the Neko-ken she had problems talking normally. "Seeee fiiinnneee."   
  
Gar was climbing back to his feet, four large gashes marred his chest, but even Sheila could see that his body was regenerating from the damage much faster than it should have been doing even for a werecat. He growled again, deep in his throat as he glared hatefully at Ranma and held out his hand as if to grab something. In a flash of lightning, Thunder Edge, Gar's magically enchanted spear, appeared with a loud clap of thunder. It was almost six foot long and had a handle made out of a dark wood and a bluish white blade at one end sparking with electricity. He spun it around his body a few times at high speed just to intimidate his opponent a little.  
  
Ranma cocked her head to the side and tried to understand what Gar had in mind, while under this much influence from the Neko-ken she was still able to retain her sense of self. There was one draw back to it though and that was that it restricted her thinking to a degree to let the cat like aspects of the technique take over just enough to grant her all the abilities and strengths of a great cat. These same instincts just didn't understand what a stick could do to hurt her when a simple slash would turn into several little pieces. Shaking her head, Ranma forced the idea through her befuddled brain, this was a magical weapon and they were something to be respected at least, and decided that it would be best to do two things. Make sure Gar never had a chance to use that thing's magical attack on her and to spend a little more time training so that she had this stupid technique totally mastered. It was to hard think straight.   
  
It was already obvious to her that she didn't have enough control over the thing to completely control her actions while under it's influence, that would be fixed as soon as she had enough time to do so. The fear of cats was gone, but it was obvious that she hadn't spent enough time working with the meditation techniques as she should have been and there was no one to blame but herself. Hissing from all fours, Ranma ran forward, bounding across the ground far faster than any human could ever run on two legs and watched as Gar suddenly started to move to the side. Her eyes focused on the toy that Gar had in his hand as he brought it to bare and pointed the shiny pointy end at her as she ran. Sensing the danger, Ranma jumped at him from ten yards away and did an unexpected roll in mid air. At the same time she formed her Ki claws again and sent a second set flying at her enemy. She hissed in anger as he waved the staff around and blocked her attack with ease, a stick shouldn't have been able to do that. Then Gar ran forward and in the blink of an eye Ranma found herself on the defensive as he spun the spear around his body at incredible speed and she paid the price a half second later when the blade slashed across her leg and it's magic activated, electrocuting her on the spot.  
  
"AGHAAAAAAAAA!!"  
  
"Ranma!" Sheila screamed.  
  
The red head collapsed to the ground as Gar brought the spear around, hitting her across the temple with the shaft, and prepared to plunge it through her chest a second later. Gritting her teeth, Ranma forced the muscles that were still working o respond to her will as she called up a magical pattern in her mind, as she rolled forward and between Gar's legs as he screamed in rage and planted the blade right into the mud where she had been laying a half second before. Ranma took a second to get her energy back and felt her body respond to the technique even as Gar spun around and thrust the spear at her exposed back in an attempt to hit her. Taking control of her mind back and re-submerging the Neko-ken, Ranma snarled in anger as she grabbed Gar by wrist holding the spear and twisted it with a sickening crunch, and then threw an elbow shot to his forehead the instant the spear was dropped to the ground. Gar staggered back shaking his head and holding his injured arm. There were signs of true pain in his eyes as Ranma stalked forward with an angry glint of her own in her eye as she took up a stance she hadn't used in months. It was about time she went back to her training and use a secret technique of the Saotome School of Martial Arts.  
  
"I WILL NOT LOSE!!" Ranma screamed as an aura of power formed around her and started making her clothing ripple under it's full force.  
  
She blurred as the old form came back to her in an instant increasing her confidence and her power twenty fold. Small bursts of Ki exploded from her fists and feet every time they made contact with Gar's body, whipping him around like a piñata on a string as Ranma moved around him in circle of attacks. She didn't bother to shout out names or anything like that, she was to angry and within a few minutes Gar was helpless within the ring of attacks as Ranma used her limited Ki control to pick up the speed even more. A werecreatures biggest gift was their regenerative ability, allowing them to survive things that would kill anyone else, but in Ranma's rage at the possibility of being beaten yet again she turned this advantage to a something else. Within a matter of seconds Gar's whole body was covered in bruises and cuts as blood dripped off his chin as the blood ran from his shattered nose. Every time Ranma hit or kicked him there it would send a spray of blood flying away from.   
  
Ranma just screamed as she continued the ten minute long fast attack kata and kicked Gar's ass, then as she reached the end and saw that he was wavering she kicked out at his legs and sent him to his knees with a cry of pain. Her hand clasped together, Ranma used all her Ki enhanced strength to slam five really powerful blows to his head that nearly knocked the guy unconscious and kicked him hard enough to send him flying away from her and collapse on the ground about ten feet away. Ranma stood there gasping for air for a few seconds and watched to see if Gar would get up from that kind of beating. She nodded to herself when she saw that his wounds were healing, but at a much slower rate than normal. Sighing quietly she turned to see how Sheila was doing and found that she was being held back by two people she hadn't expected to see for a couple more weeks, Julia and Theodore Diggers.  
  
"Master Julia?" Ranma asked, her tone calm and controlled as she struggled to keep from collapsing completely. "Where'd you two come from?"  
  
"Teleport spell." Dr. Diggers said as he walked over and looked down at Gar, quite curious to see what might have been affecting the young man.  
  
B had his small head peaking out of Sheila's pack and had a look of shock on his face before turning around and vanishing into the depths of her pack. Ranma didn't really think much of it or didn't notice as she tried to calm down, but would have thought it was a bit of relief not to have to fend off the little guys verbal assaults like he normally did. Dr. Diggers had an odd look in his eyes as he looked at Ranma, but he kept his thoughts to himself as he knelt beside Gar and cast a couple of quick spells. A blue glow formed around Gar's body as he lay there and Dr. Diggers seemed to see something after a few seconds. "I think I know what has happened to the poor guy."  
  
"What would that be?" Julia asked as she held Sheila from running to her brother.  
  
"He has been placed under a very sneaky kind of spell."  
  
"Spell?" Sheila asked as she stopped struggling and looked at her brother.  
  
Dr. Diggers nodded. "It's a very subtle one that can be cast quietly and without the victim knowing about it. It's called Diana's Touch and is normally used to bring out the repressed feelings of people having relationship problems. It was created a couple thousand years ago by this kindly old witch that used to live on the other side of the continent and used to keep her sister's husband from being to abusive. In this case it was used on Gar to bring out his over protective nature and from there, with a little kick at the right time, he would go into this berserker rage that we just witnessed."  
  
"How can you tell?" Ranma asked as she walked forward and looked over all the damage she had just done to Gar and winced a little.  
  
Reaching out, Dr. Diggers pulled Gar's mud covered hair to the side and pointed to a small rune on the back of his neck. "That is a rune an example of Diana's Touch and from the look of it the thing has been there for some time, several weeks at least."  
  
Julia finally released Sheila as they walked over to examine the rune as well. "Why didn't anyone notice that he was behaving oddly? How long has he had this thing?"  
  
"Something like this works really slow, so slow that the victim won't even notice his feelings and thoughts as they are slightly warped in accordance to the spell. It usually takes outside interference to even notice them changing, it's that subtle, and I'm kind of curious to know just who placed it there."  
  
"What were they trying to accomplish with this?" Sheila wondered as she kneeled next to her brother.  
  
"My guess would be that it was used to cause strife among the Edge Guard Sheila, Gar's increasing paranoia would certainly cause problem. It's hard to say what else they had in mind, there are hundreds of possibilities to choose from, they might have used it for revenge, or to weaken the team, or even something even more sneaky." Dr. Diggers said with a shrug.  
  
Sheila nodded, Gar's attitude lately had been causing problems between all of them and if he was here that meant he wasn't out doing his assignment either. She was going to have to get him back to the compound before he got into to much trouble and have a little talk with Onoli about this.  
  
"I also think that what happened was aggravated by Ranma here and made him go berserk a little early." Dr. Diggers said as he pulled a few items from subspace and started building a spell.  
  
"Huh?"   
  
"Sheila he will protect you above all others, it's in his nature, so when Ranma came along and you showed such an interest, it frightened him enough to set this reaction off. I'll be he's even been following you around the city to keep an eye on you and make sure you're safe. We're just lucky that Ranma was able to take him down, I would have been forced to use much damaging methods to do it myself and he did it without even using magic. I was quite surprised to say the least, most magic users are totally dependent on their magic."   
  
Ranma just shrugged and scratched his head at the base of his ponytail and ignored Julia as she smirked at him.  
  
"Maybe, but I would have taken him down if Ranma hadn't done it." Julia said. "I also think that if they got to Gar with this spell they might have gotten to some of the others as well."  
  
Theo just frowned as that little idea rebounded across his mind a couple of times and nodded. "I would actually be surprised if Gar was the only one who's been acting a little odd of late."  
  
"Would the symbol be visible by just looking at the back of someone's neck?" Ranma asked as she moved to look under Sheila's hair and found nothing there.  
  
Sheila blushed, but let him do it without comment.  
  
"We're going to have to check all the Edge Guard over when we get to Seer's Hamlet."  
  
"I guess we have to call the Hunt off, huh?" Sheila muttered.  
  
"Yep, but not to worry, you can always come back out here tomorrow." Julia suggested.  
  
"Um...what about the undead animals?" Ranma muttered as she looked out into the swamp.  
  
"Undead animals?" Dr. Diggers asked as he pressed his hand to the rune on Gar's neck and finally cast his spell to remove the mark. When he removed his hand a few seconds later the rune was gone and Gar seemed to deflate back into his normal self, though he looked haggard and beat.  
  
Ranma and Sheila nodded. "Just before we got here a whole bunch of them attacked me and Sheila and we had to run for it, we lost them and ended up with Gar here."  
  
"Let's get out of here for now, I'm getting a bad feeling about this. Something is going on that I just don't understand." Theo said.  
  
"Agreed, I sense something off in the distance, deeper in the swamp, but it's so hard to tell what it could be." Julia said.  
  
"Why won't Gar wake up?" Sheila asked. "His wounds are healing normally again now that you cast that spell."  
  
"He will sleep for the next couple of days, that spell did a number on his mind and even with the counter spell I just cast he's going to need time for the full effects to wear off. Sleep will speed up the process and Nali can make sure it's completed properly." Dr. Diggers said as he lifted his hand up and they all vanished in a flare of light. Behind them, the cave that Gar had come out of at the beginning of this whole mess seemed to shimmer just a little before returning to normal and the world around the island became silent once more.  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
End Notes - I had a bit more I was going to add to this chapter, but I decided that it was time to send it out to everybody instead of making them wait a bit longer. At the moment it's over 200kb already and that's more than enough. The next chapter, GO09c [currently 40kb] will be the final part to this mini saga I've saddled myself with and will tie up a lot of loose ends and reveal Rooks full plan as it brings all the various characters together in one large battle. I have no clue how large it will turn out to be in the end, but I hope to make it a good sized chapter as well, just like all the previous chapters.   
  
* This needs and explanation: Ashaton Chaos is a character created by Teamrocket251 and he wanted me to use the Character in the story sometime. He has the same curse as Ranma, but that isn't to much of a problem at the moment since this will probably be the only part where Ashaton shows up in. He is from another dimension after all. How people react to the character will depend on if I use him again so we'll see.   
  
**Ashaton is glossing over certain things he doesn't want Thropan to know about  
(I want to thanks To RedPriest17, Teamrocket251, Blindmanx, and everyone else that helped me out at one point in time or another on this chapter.)  
The Edge Guard:   
  
Sheila is Gar's sister. She has a rare werecat birth defect where her human form has her strength and speed instead of her hybrid form. She's an adult in a teenager's hybrid form. She chooses her hybrid form in combat usually because her human form lacks the healing and jagwere dexterity. Also, she's accepted more as 'one of the guys' when she's small, not as a gorgeous damsel to be put on a pedestal to court. Despite her insisted maturity, she uses words like pow and kapowie. Most of her elemental attacks are based around them. She's infatuated with Tirga, but refuses to let him know.  
  
Race: Jagwere  
Class: swashbuckler/ fighter  
Weapon: Ice Fang, scimitar  
Special Ability: The fastest healer in hybrid form.  
Gar is second in command of the Northern Edge Guard. A dark and brooding warrior since Brittany Diggers spurned his affections after he tried to defeat her lover Stripe in hand-to-hand combat. Since he was trained by the famous armsmaster, Julia Diggers, the fight was nearly his. Gar refuses to let go for reasons of his own. But Julia taught him first and foremost to have patience without hesitance.   
  
Race: Jagwere  
Class: Martial artist/ fighter  
Weapon: Thunder Edge, partisan (spear)  
Special Ability: During a solar eclipse, Gar can focus his power to perform the Lunar Rave, increasing his strength, speed, and size.  
  
Tirga is a hedonistic, vain womanizer, who relies on his charm to get out of most scrapes. But behind his fun-loving demeanor, Tirga is a cautious, secretive person. Often uses disguises to blend into his surroundings when tracking his quarry.  
  
Race: Were-tiger  
Class: Rogue/Tracker/Tactician  
Weapon: Fire Claw, morning star mace  
Special Ability: His powers of vanity allow him to grow his hair to any length or style to aid in his disguises.  
Onoli is the leader of the Northern Edge Guard, and their strongest and wisest member. Raised in bushido schools of thought, Onoli lets little disturb his tranquility. Well-versed in the laws of the Retreat, he makes an eloquent public speaker at the Council.  
  
Race: Were-lion  
Class: samurai  
Weapons: Seraphim and Necro, swords of Light and Dark soul energy. The Jasper - Rain   
Thropan is a mechanical artifact expert as well as a mechanical and magical engineer. He rebuilt and modified the standard issue Edge Guard elemental weapons and gear with his own experimental designs including the device that lets them gate around. With science and technology outlawed on Jade, Thropan toes the line with all his technological experiments using magic for power.  
  
Race: Were-panther  
Class: Magical engineer/ martial artist  
Weapon: Earth Flail, dragon's claw (bladed nunchaku)  
Special Ability: Master of the School of Xiao Pai Long 


	11. Chapter 10

Notes - As with Prime Attitude II I'm breaking a longer chapter down into several parts and releasing them as seperate chapters. In this particular chapter I've taken the time to help expand on the Paladins, the Undead Army, the Edge Guard, and a bit of Ranma and Sheila. The first scene below was originally going to be a rather elaberate Omake, but after a working on it for a while I decided to put it in after spending three weeks working on it.   
  
Web Site: http://shi_hanna.tripod.com/  
  
**********  
  
Golden Opportunity  
  
Chapter 10  
  
Cory D. Rose  
  
ertle2@msn.com  
  
(c) 2003  
  
**********  
  
Whenever an undead army of any kind attacked a city, two things stood out among peoples memories. The first was that most of the army tended to be made up of things people would rather not think about too often, like the remains of old uncle Sweenback and his gang. That meant that there was a good chance that Clem would have meet up with his brother Hoss anyway, who had died the week before in a freak accident with a jar of oil, missing his pants, and a horse's hoof to the temple. This of course was something the family really didn't want to talk about very much and had gone to great lengths to hide the fact that there had ever been a brother named Hoss in the first place. So when said undead brother kicked down the door and moaned at his family they reacted like they always had to the strange and unusual in a city of wizards. They took out their tools, an axe and a shovel and attacked their deceased family member with the full intention of making sure he never had a chance to get near another horse. For the good of the family. Of course.  
  
"It's Hoss! Kill the &%$# for ruining our horses!" Clem yelled.  
  
"But Clem, we used to play together when we were..." Hoss started to plead, but got hit in the head with a shovel from his mother.  
  
"Quiet boy!" She yelled. "And put some &%$#ing pants on!"  
  
"But Ma!"  
  
The other thing that stood out in peoples memories was the fact that if you actually had to fight one of the undead creatures, one on one was the best way to do it because the things were actually only dangerous in large groups or if you were incredibly stupid. Most undead were actually kind of easy to take down, as long as it was one of the brainless types anyway. A good hit with an axe and a skeleton was nothing but shattered bones clattering upon the ground at your feet and most of the zombies were highly flammable for some reason, no one had yet connected the idea of methane and decomposition yet since science was forbidden on Jade. City folk and fire just didn't mix very well and undead bodies staggering around in circles while on fire, lit up by people throwing burning logs at the things from the comfort of their homes, was just strange. So axes and swords were encouraged by the Mage Council to keep the casualties down to a minimum.   
  
"AGHAAAAAAAA!!!" Lanna screamed as she walked into the front room and saw her zombified brother with no pants on. "YOU DISGUSTING PIG!"  
  
"Uh...hi sis?" Hoss tried.  
  
He backed up as step as Lanna grabbed the shovel she had just gotten from her mother and slowly advanced on him with every intention of caving his skull in. He barely noticed as his clothing started on fire from the log that had been shoved down his throat.  
  
This was why, the recently deceased Hoss, having had a bit of the wood from the cooking fire shoved down his throat by his Pa, which was currently still on fire. On top of that, his loving siblings, a brother and a sister were taking turns beating him into a second death with an axe and a shovel. Hoss's body was staggering around enough to set other houses on fire as he was hit across the face with a shovel and slammed into the occasional house. What little brains he had left came to the conclusion that his after life really sucked. Then his mother had to go and hit him over the head with a frying pan and his sister Lanna, the one that had been especially nice to him that one night in late November when he'd been out in the barn 'tending' to his favorite horse. Had just slammed a rather large shovel right into his crotch with the edge. Then his vicious brother proved his brotherly love by using the axe to remove all his limbs while his sister removed his head with a couple of awkward swings with the shovel. The snarl on her face was a beautiful thing to see, it highlighted her freckles and other things that one shouldn't see.  
  
"Sis?" Hoss asked as his head rolled away from his body after one last clumsy swing of the shovel; why did he suddenly feel so free of guilt and anger?  
  
"Excuse me miss are there any other undead around here or is that the...?"  
  
Lanna screamed, twisted around and hit the source of the voice over the head with her shovel and watched in shock as Tirga of the Edge Guard collapsed to the ground. "Oh my!"  
  
"Ungh." Tirga said eloquently.  
  
"Are you alright?" Lanna asked with a hint of worry as she stepped over to him and noted all the dark fur and rock hard muscles hidden beneath his clothing.  
  
"What you got there sis?" Clem asked as he hefted his axe in the air above Hoss' body in case he needed to use it again. Most of Hoss' body seemed to have been consumed by the fire and it was kicked outside easily enough to let the rest of it burn to ash on its own. Undead were supposed to be able to live through even that so they would have just wait until the fire died down. Though his head had been cut off before the fire could reach it and it looked like it was quite comfortable as it rolled back and forth on the floor.  
  
"That there be Tirga of the Edge Guard, you should have seen him walking around the city at least once over the last few years, boy." Their mother said as she tossed a bowl of water from the kitchen on the small fire that had started on her porch and kicked a couple of severed fingers into the small bonfire Hoss' body was turning into a few yards away. She waved to the neighbors that were peaking fearfully from behind the curtains on the window that faced their house. The quickly vanished and she used the broom to sweep the severed head out the door and set it rolling towards the fire, though Hoss had something to say about that.  
  
"But Ma..." Hoss tried to plead, but she didn't seem to hear him as she raised the broom like a golf club and lobbed the severed head into the burning pile.  
  
"The one that always has a different girl on his arm?" Clem asked as he stared down at the weretirger that had his sister so infatuated.  
  
Their ma nodded as she looked around and considered tossing the horses on the flaming pile as well, they just hadn't been same since Hoss died a few weeks ago. They just didn't have the energy they used to.  
  
"Uh...what hit me?" Tirga muttered as he started to sit up as Lanna raised her shovel high.  
  
Clang, clang!  
  
"What'd you go and that fore Lanna?" Clem asked.  
  
"I owed him one for that time he dumped me right in the middle of a date to go and flirt with a stripper." Lanna said with a sniff at her suddenly selective memory and stalked off with the shovel on her shoulder. Maybe she could find another zombie to take down, she needed to have a word or two with her grandfather anyway and he had only died a couple years ago.   
  
"What's with her, ma?"  
  
"I have no idea."  
  
Pa just pretended he was one with the wall and decided that he might not want to draw to much attention to himself for a little while.  
  
"Ungh!" Tirga muttered as he started to come around again.  
  
And Hoss, well he just burned and dreamed of Bolt with a silly little grin on his face, she was his favorite mare.  
  
"What happened to you?" Thropan asked as he came around the side of the house with Lanna close behind, her shovel was broken at the handle, but she had a satisfied grin on her face that suggested that she had found what she was looking for.  
  
"Ungh." Tigra muttered as he tried to wake up a bit more.  
  
"Better be careful around this one Tirga, she has a mean over swing." Thropan said with a grin. Then shook his head a little and helped his friend to his feet when he started to come around and ignored the large bruise forming on Tirga's forehead.   
  
The last twenty four hours had been pretty rough on Tirga, he'd been beaten up by Sheila, fought his way through a few hundred undead, been traumatized by a cute red head with a transgender curse, and now his friend was giving the girl at his side pointers on how to swing a shovel effectively enough to knock anyone out. He just couldn't seem to get a break. Tirga wasn't going to be able to live this one down for a very long time, all he had to do was mention that Ashaton guys name and the poor weretiger would start to shudder as the nightmare would come back to him. He briefly wondered if Tirga would develop a phobia to weird girls now, then shook his head and reminded himself that Tirga found the love of his life every few days. In a week he wouldn't even remember this. The guy had been following the girl around earlier when they both witnessed her use water to change from female to male. Tirga's lust had turned to and upset stomach and stupefied shock.  
  
"Come on stud, you can't just lay here and sleep. We have a job to do." He said as he helped Tirga to his feet.  
  
"Unmina....uuuy." Tirga muttered.  
  
"Un huh, sure you are." Thropan said with a grin and turned to family as they watched. "You wouldn't have seen Onoli around here would you?"  
  
"No, other than these annoying Undead, you're the first Edge Guard I've seen a couple of weeks."  
  
He nodded. "Thanks, keep up the good work."  
  
Pa smiles. "No problem."  
  
As Thropan leaves with Tirga he hears the mother asking if they should do something about the horse, but turned the corner and headed down another street without hearing the answer. Sometimes he thought he would never understand the people that lived in this city, usually they were pretty normal in a greedy kind of way, but every now and then something like this would happen and just leave him confused. In the last couple of hours the whole city had been over run with thousands of undead skeletons and zombies being led by Undead Knights on horses. The only reason they hadn't overwhelmed the whole city already was the magical defences that had sprung up out of nowhere and even those were only working long enough to allow the paladin's from the base palace to set up magical road blocks in the street. Every torch in the city was an ever burning torch. They all seemed to have a Protection from Evil spell cast on it that activated when an undead got near one. If a Skeleton got to close to one, they would either explode or stumble off in a confused daze, making them easy targets.   
  
The Zombies couldn't get near one either, but they weren't destroyed by them, and that left the Undead Knights. They weren't by their very nature's evil beings, that was just what they had been raised to do by Rook. If they could have had any say in the matter they would have chosen to stay dead. Instead they were enslaved to the one that raised them in the first place and since most of them tended to be warriors that had died on the field of battle, they tended to be more neutral than evil. They fought and died for many different reasons, but when it came right down to it they weren't good, nor were they evil, they were just mindless tools. So they were able to get to the torches and disrupt the spell for a few seconds just by pulling it from the wall, enough that the rest of the undead could get through the streets without being harmed.  
  
**********  
  
Nali's clinic was famous throughout the region as the best place to take the injured for a quick recovery. She didn't mind this to much because it kept her bills paid, but there were times when she really, really hated to be bothered by everyone and their grandmother. She never complained about it though, that would have been unprofessional and she had a reputation to protect. Today was a bit different though, she had been treating several injured from an early morning bar fight and had used up about half the beds in her clinic. Most of them had been sent home, except for a couple with broken legs, when near sundown people had started staggering into her clinic with sword wounds and arrows sticking out of them and learned that the whole city was being attacked by an undead army. Within the hour she had been so overwhelmed that she had been forced to contact three other part time clinics on the other side of town about more supplies.   
  
She had only gotten a tiny amount though since they had been over loaded with wounded patients themselves. That was when she found out about all the undead swarming into the city and attacking every living thing that moved. By the end of the first hour everybody was talking about the Undead Knights, laughing skeletons, and even zombies. She even heard a rumor that one of the Edge Guard had already been killed in the very first fight, but didn't have much time to worry about it or even care who it was. Every time she had a patient well enough to leave the clinic it seemed like two more would appear to take his place. She was so busy that she'd been forced to ask that all her assistants come in to help her, even setting up bed rolls out in the grass behind the building.  
  
So she was quite swamped with almost two dozen patients, running around the room like a mad woman yelling orders to one of her assistants when Dr. Diggers and the others teleported into her clinic with a burst of white light that drew everyone's attention. All talk stopped as people realized that a member of the Council of Mages had brought in one of the Edge Guard. Dr. Diggers ignored everyone as he levitated Gar off the ground and over to one of the few empty beds, emptied less than ten minutes before, and deposited Sheila's brother upon it as gently as he could. He kept his face calm, but inside he was wondering why there were so many people in the clinic at a time like this. It had only been an hour or so since his meeting with the council and everything had been quite normal when he left. Normally Nali would only have two to three patients at a time and even then it was usually something one of her potions could cure pretty quickly. This many people suggested something else was gong on and he needed to find out what it was before he did anything else. Nodding to Nali, he motioned for the rest of them to head out to the lobby for a few minutes while Nali took a quick break and came over to talk to him. She told her assistant that she needed to talk to Dr. Diggers for a few seconds and that she would be right back to get him fixed up as quick as she could.  
  
"Dr. Diggers why are there so many injured people?" Sheila asked the instant they had a bit more privacy.  
  
"I don't know, but I plan to find out as soon as I can. The council should know what's going on."  
  
Dr. Diggers and Julia took moved over to the side of the room to talk to Nali, but after a few seconds he made a gesture with his hand and him and Julia flashed out of the room in burst of light. Nali didn't waste any time running across the room to start making people drink potions again. She had quite a bit on hand, but if people didn't stop coming in she was going to run out. She didn't even have time to yell at Ranma and Sheila for standing around doing nothing while she had patients to take care of. So she left them there by themselves with the other patient she had recently released after a quick examination.   
  
"So what do we do now?" Ranma asked as he glanced around the small room and noticed a guy nearly passed out in one of the chairs, a huge sword sitting between his legs for easy access if it was needed.  
  
"I'm not sure, but I think we have to get to the Compound to meet up with the others."  
  
The guy with the sword looked up and waved at them to catch their attention. "It won't do you any good; the Edge Guard Compound is gone."  
  
Sheila turned to get a better look at the guy and instantly recognized him as the guy that had saved her the day before. "Ashaton? I didn't expect to see you again."  
  
"Heh, I was on my way into town this morning when all hell broke loose a couple hours ago and ended up helping a number of people by bringing them here. I never want to see a skeleton again." Ashaton said as he thought about Raphiel and how he had vanished.  
  
"What's going on then?"  
  
"As far as I can tell, an army of undead monsters has invaded Seer's Hamlet. Though so far it's been mostly skeletons and zombies led by Undead Knights, I've never seen so many used at once."  
  
"Undead?!" Sheila yelled and instantly thought about all those undead animals they had just recently ditched just before they ran into her brother.  
  
Ashaton nodded with a tired sigh as he sat forward and grasped the handle of his over sized sword as he looked at them. "I've been pretty busy since they showed up, I'd be out there right now, but Nali wanted me to take a little break while I had the time."  
  
"How many undead have you seen so far?" Sheila asked with a glance at Ranma.  
  
"Several hundred or so. Mostly skeletons and tons of zombies, though there has been a rumor of a Ghoul roaming the city eating people that he's killed. The blasted zombies are all over the place and from peoples reactions they were all from a local graveyard. You're lucky you were able to teleport into the clinic or you would've had to fight your way here like I did."  
  
"What about the other Edge Guard members?"  
  
"I don't know. I haven't been able to find any of them because of the attack. I do know that Raphiel has vanished or been killed though." Ashaton said sadly.  
  
"WHAT?!" Sheila yelled in shock.  
  
"BE QUIET!!" Nali screamed from the other room and one of the assistants glared at them as she walked over and shut the doors that blocked the front room off from the rest of the clinic. Sheila glared back as she tried to come to terms that her friend might be dead.  
  
"Who's Raphiel?" Ranma asked; thinking of this cartoon he had once saw with bunch of guys dressed up in turtle outfits and performing a number of cheesy martial arts moves.  
  
"He's the newest member of the Edge Guard, a Golem shaped like a Werecheetah and has just recently returned form his basic training at the main training ground inside the Retreat." Sheila explained. "Ashaton, what makes you think he's dead?"  
  
He was silent for a few seconds before he decided what he needed to tell them. "I was near the Compound when a number of Undead Knights and a human woman stormed it. I'll bet they knew that no one was there, but they quickly took all the buildings and started to hunt Raphiel down. I think he was fighting back because the woman wasn't too pleased with some to the things the Undead Knights seemed to be telling her. I came along when I sensed them and tried to help out as best I could, we did pretty good considering how inexperienced your newest member is in a fight, but boy can he run. The two of us fought the Undead Knights for a while and managed to take down several of them as we fought our way across the compound, but that woman was more dangerous than I thought and she managed to knock me out and take Raphiel when he had his guard down."  
  
"Then what happened?"   
  
"When I woke up Raphiel was gone." Ashaton said with a sigh. "I couldn't find a body either, so I'm not sure what happened to him."  
  
Sheila slumped a little, this kind of thing was expected in her line of work, but it was always a blow to see someone you had just met get beaten by the other side. "Did you see his body anywhere?"  
  
"No, it was as if he had never existed."  
  
"Nothing at all, even a small piece of him?" Sheila tried again.  
  
"Why? What does that matter?"   
  
"Raphiel is a Golem, one of the most realistic ones ever created in this age. As such if even a small piece of him survived it would be possible to bring him back from the dead, but if they took his body or kidnapped him there isn't anything we can do right now."  
  
Ashaton cocked his head to the side a little and reached into one of his cloak pockets. "I did find this nearby when I woke up, but didn't really think all that much about it at the time and up until recently, with all these undead wandering around I had forgotten about it." He held up the small puzzle piece.  
  
Taking the piece Sheila held it up and nodded. "This is just like the last time he was destroyed by his creator that first time. All that survived was this small piece of him. It's like a piece of his soul or something and he can be revived with it, though we don't have Array around like we used to, so I'm not sure what we can do this time around. All we really have to do is have another body made for him. Raphiel was given to us to train for whatever we needed; I figure we can do so again." Sheila wondered for a brief second if they would actually be able to contact Array again, and then decided that it would have to wait until later. Losing Raphiel would be a loss for the whole team, but he was gone and they had a tough job to take care of before things got any worse.  
  
Ranma leaned forward and took a close look at the object in Sheila's hand. "That little thing can be turned into a living breathing person?"  
  
She nodded. "Raphiel has a strange history; he was created to force Britanny to marry someone other than Stripe."  
  
"I take it that the plan didn't work?" Ranma asked as he tried to recall if Britanny had ever mentioned anything about her marriage or a rival, but came up with nothing.  
  
"Nope, the girl that created him in the first place dissolved him when he wouldn't obey her orders. He should have been completely destroyed, but for some reason this piece of him survived and he was brought back by a criminal named Array. The Council of Mages speculated that Raphiel may have been made too complete and that this thing may actually contain his soul, something no other golem has ever had."  
  
Ashaton snorted. "I truly doubt that, golems are just machines, but I do know that Raphiel was very life like. Much more than some of the golems I've encountered over the years."  
  
"I see..." Ranma mumbled, lost at sea and with no way to figure out what they were talking about. Then he did what he father had always told him to do, smile and keep silent, and pretend to know what was going on. He nodded knowingly and figured he could always try and figure it out later.  
  
"That reminds me, what are we going to do about all these undead wandering around the swamp, even the city? They have to be the reason there are so many people in here and wounds from certain types of undead don't heal right."  
  
Ranma blinked out of his confusion and gave her a funny look. "They don't?"  
  
"No, undead are created with powerful magic and that magic sometimes messes with a persons ability to heal, especially us werecats." Sheila explained.  
  
Nali was wiping her hand on a rag as she opened the clinic doors and came out into the lobby for a small break and to see if any more patients had shown up. "You guys may as well go home if you don't need to see me, I'm full up and helping some of the guys to live through the night is going to take all my attention."  
  
"What about Gar?" Sheila asked.  
  
"He's taken quite a beating, but he should live, but that compulsion spell that was cast on him will take several days to wear off completely, it would be best to just let him sleep."  
  
"Ranma I told you not to hurt my brother!" Sheila said as she turned on Ranma and glared when she remembered just who it was that beat up her brother.  
  
"Like I had a choice in the matter." Ranma growled back.  
  
"Gar will be fine, but he needs rest more than anything right now so that the counter spell can work properly."  
  
Nali said and shooed all of them outside. "Now get going, I have patients to take care of."  
  
Sheila nodded as they exited the building and turned to Ranma. "Where do we go from here? The Compound is gone so I have no place to stay."  
  
Suddenly there is low pitched, but annoying sound in the air that has Ranma and Ashaton looking around in confusion. "What the heck?"  
  
"That is the general alert tone, it means that the whole city is under attack and the citizens need to be on guard and help out the city militia as best they can. About time too, they should have sounded that some time ago." Nali muttered darkly.  
  
"I have to go and find Onoli; with the alert on the whole team needs to be assembled as quickly as possible." Sheila said as she tried to come up with the best way to do just that and started walking down the street looking for any of her friends. "Ranma you can come with me or help out here, but I have to go and meet everyone."  
  
"Like I'll just leave you to go into danger by yourself." Ranma snapped as he followed after her.  
  
Nali watched them head down the street and turn a corner before turning to Ashaton. "I see the hot water worked."  
  
Ashaton laughed nervously and nodded. "Um...yeah, thanks again for your help."  
  
"Still want me to see why you changed into a werecheetah like that? Considering what you really are..." Nali started to say.  
  
"No, I already had a pretty good guess why and if what that girl just said was true, then Raphiel is probably the reason I changed the way I did."  
  
"Then get out, with the alert on I have to prepare for more injured and your health, so in the way."  
  
He nodded with an innocent face. "Alright, I need to go and help out as well, thanks for giving a place to rest up for a couple of hours."   
  
"No problem." Nali said as she stalked back inside the clinic and shut the door.  
  
With a nod Ashaton carefully swung his large sword up over his head and slid it through the strap that he used to hold in place. He tended to slice through the straps upon occasion, but pulling the thing out of a sheath was a giant pain in the ass. Two straps worked just as well and allowed him enough freedom of movement to yank the thing out quickly if he needed to. He glanced around and noticed for the first time that the streets were deserted for as far as he could see. After a few seconds he decided to head in the opposite direction as Raphiel's friends. Now that the girl had that puzzle piece, he still had problems believing that they would bring the guy back to life with it; there was a chance he could get back to finding what he came here for in the first place.  
  
The Phoenix Gate. Several magical sources had pointed him towards this city and if he had to fight his way through the city just to find the thing, he was prepared to do just that. It was his only way home. He pulled out the list of places he had planned to check out before all this happened and saw that he was quite close one of the places at the top of the list. Though he took a second to scratch a line through the first item on the list, he hadn't senses the Phoenix Gate energy anywhere inside of Nali's Clinic. Now he had to head off to the next location a few blocks away, through a slavering horde of undead monsters, and fond a store that sold magical items. He carefully memorized the cross streets and flipped the paper over and checked the map he'd bought a few days before of Seer's Hamlet. It wasn't the best map, bit it showed him everything he needed to know, all he had to do was mark down the general area and he could find his way there.   
  
"Now all I have to hope for is that I find the thing before anyone else has a chance to use it."  
  
**********  
  
In the light of the setting sun Goldwave slipped out of his small lair inside the main entrance to the base palace and out onto the large branch and looked out over the to the mountains in the distance. The ancient gold dragon spread his wings and dropped off the large branch that stretched out for close to ten miles from the trunk of the great tree and let his wings cut into the wind for several seconds before he twisted them and let his magic flow out along his body and allowing his large bulk to lighten enough to allow him to fly. With a massive flexing of his wings he levelled out about a hundred feet above the ground and rose into the sky. Within minutes he was cruising just below the clouds with lazy sweeps of his wings, letting his magic keep him as light as a bird in flight with its hollow bones. He looked down at the ground below to see where he was and saw that he was just a few miles from the dragon's preserve.  
  
Centuries before when they had made up the treaty with the humans his ancestors had taken steps to make sure that there was a place for all dragons to rest and hunt for dinner. Goldwave didn't really care that a lot of dragons thought this was a bit of a raw deal, he was old, and he didn't really care about what any of the younger dragons thought any more. He had spent his youth doing the same thing and eventually grown out of it as he learned more and more about the humans and how they reacted to things. He was thankful to have a place to go where he could get a quick meal without having to hunt it down. Sure he had to actually capture one of the animals in the preserve, but at least they were usually in the same place and there was usually quite a selection to choose from. With a lazy twist he spotted the area he wanted and focused down on a couple of large bulls standing out in a pasture that marked the boundary to the preserve.   
  
Stomach grumbling, Goldwave marked out one of the bulls and moved to dive on him from hundreds of feet up in the air. Then he caught something out of the corner of his eye and turned to see a horrifying sight as a Dracolich dove out of the clouds above him. As a dragon he was immune to most types of fear, being an ancient dragon took care of pretty much everything else, but a Dracolich isn't like a normal dragon. They are the reanimated bones of a dead dragon with decomposing skin and an undead glow that could literally frighten the living to death with its mere presence. It turned its skeletal head toward him and snarled; its teeth gnashing against the wind as little flecks of skin seemed to slowly strip off its skull. Its eye sockets were glowing with undead life, sending a greenish white glow into the night air. Goldwave wasn't surprised, nothing surprised him anymore and he had met a Dracolich a couple times in the last twenty thousand years.  
  
One thing he did know how ever was that he wasn't as strong as he had been in his prime. His magic was a lot stronger, but his body wasn't up to the challenge that a Dracolich would prove to be, then the worst thing that could happen, did. Goldwave's head snapped to look in the other direction and spotted a second Dracolich, this one was just an evil looking as the other one and it seemed to be getting ready to attack. With a determined roar Goldwave knew his chances of surviving this had just dropped even lower, it would take all his cunning and skill to make it out of this. He didn't care who had sent them, only that he would have to fight them with everything he had. Luckily he knew some of the weaknesses a Dracolich had to exploit. With a flap of his wings he rolled in mid air, unsheathed his claws and landed on top of the first Dracolich's back and buried them in as far as they would go. Inhaled at the same time and used his breath weapon to engulf the thing's head for a second or two before spreading his wings and raising high into the air above them using the sudden infusion of thermal energy from his breath weapon to gain some much needed altitude.  
  
He laughed as the second Dracolich collided with the first one in an attempt to get him with a surprise attack. Undead of this type have no brains, literally, and are usually controlled by the mage that resurrected them. He wondered briefly if these two were being controlled by the same Mage then decided that even if they were this fight would take far too long. He would have to take some chances if he wanted to live to see another day. A true undead dragon wouldn't have wasted their time in an attempt to intimidate him; they would have strafed him from above and hit him in the stomach and wings with their breath weapon before flying off and vanishing into the clouds. Being undead they would pretty much unstoppable with normal aerial moves as well and no matter how much he damaged their wings and body they just wouldn't stop until they were totally destroyed. He had just reduced the first one by almost half by snapping its wing bones like he had and burning its head into a fine char, but one look over his shoulder was enough to confirm that even when it was on fire the thing just wouldn't stop coming.  
  
Growling in anger Goldwave adjusted his eyes enough to see the ground below him a little better while using his magic senses to keep an eye on the two Draloliches after him. With a mighty flap of his wings he rose up higher into the air, spun around and focused in on his enemy with narrowed eyes full of rage. The Draloliches rose toward him with some kind of smoke trailing from their undead mouths, but Goldwave didn't care. His bones creaked as he performed a delicate pitch and roll maneuver at over ten thousand feet in the air and lit up the sky with his flame, vaporizing nearby clouds as it fired out of his mouth with an ear shattering roar that can even be heard all the way back at Seer's Hamlet. Dodging as best they can the two Draloliches just barely get out of the way as Goldwave folded his wings and dove right through the hole he had just created and headed for the ground like a stone, his great bulk as streamlined as it can be.  
  
His enemy was quick to follow, but not quick enough as Goldwave waited until he was just a few hundred feet above the ground to unfurl his wings and angle them just right. His teeth are showing as he watches the undead things follow after him and wondered if they have any semblance of a dragon still left in them or if they are truly just puppets. His wings finally cut into the wind enough for him to alter his decent into a glide as he missed running into the ground by only fifty feet. His senses tell him that the undead things are too far behind him to have fallen for the trick as they suddenly change course without the use of their wings. These two were far more than Goldwave had suspected and he started to grin a little more. This fight was going to be more than he figured; these were true Draloliches, not the phoney types that were just animated skeletons most commonly used.  
  
His speed was such that when he passed over a farm house he had to have blown all the windows out. He ignored it completely as he spotted what he was heading for in the distance. If he was to survive he would have to use all the trickery in his arsenal and what he had in mind might not work against a true Dracolich, but he would have to try, he would not die without taking one of them with him at least. His senses flared as he felt a build up of magical power above him and twitched to the side, almost hopping in mid air, as two beams of black energy passed through where his wings had been just barely a half second before. They flew down and slammed into the ground without and explosion. Instead from where they had a circle of forest and grass seemed to just dry up and die in the blink of an eye for almost a hundred feed in either direction. He had never seen a Death breath weapon before and knew that if he was hit with one he was as good as dead.  
  
Pumping more of his magical energies through his body he increased his speed as much as he could. He could feel the drain on his energy supplies dwindling with every second that passed, but he didn't slow down as his eyes were finally able to make out the cliff face he was looking for. It was over eight hundred feed high and had been around for centuries. About a third of the way down one side was a large gorge or crevice that had formed over an even longer length of time. As a small dragon he had used the gorge as a play ground and knew it better than the backs of his wings. It had twists and turns that could take a normal dragon by surprise if they weren't careful and he'd once had the pattern down so perfectly that he could fly it blind. It had been a couple hundred years, but he still remembered his mental map and some of the places he'd once tricked other dragons into during the course of the run.  
  
He had never done such a thing with a Dracolich though and he wasn't sure if his plan would work or not, but he had ever intention of going through with it and with a little luck he would survive this attack. A glance behind him was enough to let him know that the pair of undead things were catching up with him as they used magic to just propel themselves forward at speeds that would have normally ripped the scales from their bodies. Goldwave ignored it for now and knew he would make the gorge a few seconds before they caught up with him and he could use that to his advantage. He poured on a bit more magic and increased his speed and make sure his pursuers had to waste that little bit more magic to keep up with him. He grinned, his long white teeth almost gleaming, as he blew past a small isolated farm stead and used a back to send a hurricane of dry hay into the air to distract the pair.  
  
For a brief second they weren't quite as focused on him as they had been and he whispered a word to a spell he liked to use occasionally, either as a joke or in dangerous situations. Seconds later an ethereal smoke like substance started to form on his wings as he flew through the air and left a trail of sparkles trailing behind him. The problem with being a dragon was that each age category tended to be of similar power and strength so one had to out think their opponents. He used is this particular spell to gage his enemies ability to think and see how they reacted. Though these were undead beasts most Draloliches, no matter what kind of life they had been before the change, were usually thinking creatures and if they could do more than dodge and fire their breath weapon they would know for sure what kind of creatures he was dealing with.  
  
Soaring out over a small valley Goldwave started a mental countdown, as he neared the gorge and knew he was only a minute from reaching the beginning of a race that could very well mean his life. A roar off to the side caused him to fold one wing up just a notch and he deftly dodged another ball of black energy and saw out of the corner of his eye as it blew a large swath of death into the plants and trees below. He grinned as he noticed that the things had started to ignore the sparkles coming off his wings and were letting them cascade around their undead bodies.   
  
"STARLIGHT FLARE!" Goldwave suddenly bellowed and gave the spell a mental shove.  
  
Goldwave's wings exploded into a blinding white light that flashed across the sky and traveled back down his flight path with a trail of sparkles. They left his wings in a wave of piercing light that caught the two undead monsters by surprise as it washed over them and lit them up like a pair of mini flying suns. It also moved across the sky rest of the sky in a matter of seconds and lit up the whole valley around them as if the sun was still raining light down upon the world. Goldwave crowed in triumph as the Draloliches were forced to change course and go spinning wildly out of control. If it worked like he hoped they would be too pissed off to think straight and he would have them. Now all he had to do was conserve his magic and fly like a hatchling through a gorge that had once been his playground.  
  
He suddenly realized he had made a slight miscalculation and was in deep trouble, he had nearly tripled in size over the years and he just knew as he entered the gorge that he wasn't as maneuverable as he had been all those years before. Cursing loudly for making such a hatchling like mistake. He would have be overly careful and hope his larger bulk wouldn't cause too many problems. That of course was why he suddenly had a flash back to when he had used to sit on the edges of these very cliffs and insult the larger dragons for trying to take on the gorge and failing due to their size. He sighed to himself and cursed a little more, arrogance, all dragons had it in abundance and now it looked like he would either eat a bit of crow or prove his younger self wrong by conquering the gorge with a skill that the older dragons had rarely ever shown. It was a challenge for his very survival and he was all for it, who wanted to die at his age?  
  
Roaring in rage, the two Draloliches burst out of the wave of light he had engulfed them in a few seconds before. They rose into the sky and looked around till they spotted him and dove at him, using gravity to angle their bodies down at him to gain more speed. Goldwave figured he was thirty seconds from the mouth of the gorge and let his starlight flare spell go, in an instant the darkness of night washed over the valley once more and allowed him to cast a spell to help him see the gorge better. Out of the corners of his eyes he watched the decent of the two Draloliches and figured they just might fall for his next trick, they normally weren't this stupid. He really didn't want to fight these things either, but his life was on the line after all so he wouldn't worry about the damage he was about to cause. He opened his mouth just as he passed the front edge of the gorge and fired out a sudden blast of fire. It slammed into a tall pillar of stone that was used by the dragons to watch the trace through the gorge. It, along with several others, dotted various locations along its length.  
  
The blast of fire melted the stone like warm butter as he flashed by and seconds later there was a loud grinding sound as the pillar came down, shattering into several large boulders as it fell. The first Dracolich passes through right on his tail and close enough to dodge the raining pile of stone. The second Dracolich on the other hand got slammed by a thousand tons of falling stone and is literally ground into fine piles of bone powder as it crashed to the ground with a scream of rage as its body is crushed and its magic failed to protect it. Goldwave new that there was a possibility that someone would dig the thing out and reanimate it, but he figured it wouldn't happen any time soon. He just had one more to go and he could head back to the base palace and inform the council of the attack.  
  
Moving at speeds that only an adult dragon could achieve though their stronger magic control, Goldwave weaved through the first of the crags and obstacles of the course. He didn't have time to think about the past as he moved back and forth. Behind him he could just sense that the Dracolich was following him easily and in some cases just ignoring the course completely. Then Goldwave groaned as he suddenly realized another flaw in his plan, one that he hadn't even considered when he chose this place to fight. The upcoming fight would be interesting if the thing actually followed the rules of the game, but what were the chances of that?  
  
Diving deeper into the gorge proved to be a good idea as it pulled the Dracolich after him. There was also a large river near the bottom of the gorge that had been used by the dragons for the years as place to bath and have a place to relax without having to worry about being attacked by other dragons. There were places along the long river that were like neutral ground, places that had rules that were punishable by death, no matter how old the dragon was that broke it. Of course they were rarely enforced and had proven to be quite a bit of leverage over more than one dragon over the years. Goldwave gritted his teeth as he dove down and skimmed along the surface of the water and threw up a wake behind him as his long tail dragged in the water.   
  
His mind created and discarded over a dozen plans in a matter of seconds as he tried to think of the best way to kill the final Dracolich. Catching that one with the rock had been a bit of luck and pure cunning rolled into one. It would not fall for the same tactic that had gotten its partner, so he had to come up with something else. Quickly, or he was one dead dragon no matter how he looked at it. He flexed his wings and moved to the side as the thing started to spew its deadly breath weapon down upon him. Arching his back Goldwave launched himself high into the sky with a mighty flap of his wings, his eyes keeping an eye on the thing mass of bone and dried out flesh that was attacking him. Inhaling a massive amount of air he twisted in mid air as he passed by the Dracolich and fired out a wave of return fire. Letting off a silent scream the thing was engulfed in flames and blown over a hundred feed into the wall of the gorge.  
  
Goldwave arched back around for another blast of fire as the thing slid down the wall and fell in the river with a massive splash. It wasn't enough to put out a fire created by Goldwave; he had gained the ability to make sure it burned continuously until it destroyed its target. Still burning, the Dracolich turned its flaming skull towards him and opened its mouth and fired out a blast of black fire that seemed to merge with the fire and increase its power considerably. All the water in ten feet of the Dracolich instantly vaporized the beam of black death fire out of the things mouth and rose into the air. Goldwave bellowed loudly and folded his wings to his back and rolled to the side to desperately evade the attack. It flashed by and even as it missed him by a couple of feet he could feel it trying to leach the live out of his body. Behind him a good portion of the cliff face shattered under the force of the impact. For a second he could only gape at the amount of destruction as five hundred tons of solid stone hit the water with enough force to hear the strike clear over in Seer's Hamlet.  
  
Then the water seemed to swell just as he opened his wings to gain a little more altitude and a twenty foot high wave of water traveled by him to slam into the Dracolich still standing at in the water at the edge of the water. The thing was picked up and slammed against the rocks with enough force to shatter several of its bones. As Goldwave flew higher and higher he could see the ripple effect the falling rock had created and several more large waves slammed into the Dracolich and finished it off within a couple of minutes. Smaller and smaller waves pulled what was left of the body, parts of it still on fire, apart and let it drift upon the waters. The sight warmed his heart a little; those things were just a total mockery of a true dragon, no matter how strong they were.  
  
"Take that spawn of evil!" Goldwave growled out with a toothy grin.   
  
He flipped a wing to make his way out of the gorge when a shadow passed over him and he looked up just in time to be hit by a wave of black energy mixed with red lightning. It washed over his body and melted the scales off his hide and turned his flesh to liquid in an instant. He rained down the sides of the gorge in a giant flaming ball of liquid fire that lit up the night sky for several seconds. High up top the edge of the nearby gorge an impossibly huge brownish white Dracolich covered in lichen and literally nothing but skin and bone. This thing is nearly five times as big as the other two and its breath weapon seemed to fill the whole gorge for several seconds as it filled the entire are in black fire and killing every living thing it touches instantly. Eventually the black energy flowed to a stop and the thing closes its gaping maw, it sits up a little and admires its handy work before lifting its head and letting off a roar that can be heard for miles. It slowly rises into the sky and made its way towards the destination far in the distance where the tiny threads of smoke can be seen rising from the outer edges of Seer's Hamlet. With a few beats of it's bony wings it quickly climbs to about a thousand feet and takes it's place at the head of nearly a dozen flanks of smaller Dracolich's as they converge on him and they continue on their way to the city in the distance where the real battle is going on.   
  
Standing on the neck ridge of the mammoth undead dragon is a figure in black Darth Vader like armor. There is a huge sword strapped to his back and he barely seems to notice what the dragons is doing as he watches the sky around them. As they rise into the sky one can see hundreds of thousands of skeletons marching in formation after formation on the ground far below them as G'nolga leads the main portion of the army to battle. They converge and cover the whole valley in a matter of minutes as they run along at impossible speeds leaving death and destruction behind in their wake. Laughing evilly, Rook holds a gauntleted fist high and sends out a wave of red energy that seems to give more power to the undead monsters as they move, making them faster and more agile than they had been, and they are soon cutting down everything in their path. His laughter can be heard for miles as the mighty Dracolich army heralds the coming of the newest leader of the world!   
  
**********  
  
Sgt. Loval of the Seer's Hamlet Paladin Army was not in a good mood as he commanded his troops to defend the town against the undead army. They had come out of nowhere and he couldn't figure out just how that had happened. The mage council had ways to predict things like this and even had plans in place in case it actually did happen, but they needed a bit of forewarning. Something they hadn't been given this time and it was placing them at a major disadvantage. In less than an hour the undead had swarmed throughout the city and simply overwhelmed the inhabitants by sheer numbers. The council had also been informed of the attack and he figured it was just pure luck that they had been here today for a meeting. Otherwise things would have been much, much worse than there were already.   
  
That was why he was here with his men setting up a road block in the middle of the street. The skeletons had come through this part of town earlier in the day and left burning buildings and destruction in their wake. What Sgt. Loval hated the most was that when someone died they were instantly revived as a zombie and added to the Army that was attacking him. He had reports of people farmers from outside the Hamlet participating in the attack as zombies. It was enough to make him sick. Not that he had time to really care at the moment as his men finished setting up the road block. A series of wooden, magically strengthened, four foot barbed structures that were designed to stop an attacking army from advancing easily. They were light weight and easy to move into position with a horse. When they were in place they touched it and said a magic word that would make the things weigh a couple of tons each.   
  
"Sergeant?" Asked a familiar voice.  
  
He looked to the side and snapped to attention as he recognized Dr. Diggers and his wife. "Sir!"  
  
"How goes the battle? Have you received any information from the council yet?" Dr. Diggers asked.  
  
Sgt. Loval shook his head as he relaxed a little. "No sir, we have been struggling to get the defences set up around the city. We're lucky that the people are as skilled as they are, they are making the difference in this fight and buying us the time we need to get things set up to throw the undead things out of the city."  
  
"Any idea how they got through the dimensional barriers?"  
  
"No sir, though there have been rumors about a traitor letting them in. Though I have no proof of that."  
  
Dr. Diggers rubbed his chin in thought.   
  
"How many dead so far?" Julia asked.  
  
"I don't know, ma'am. When one of our side dies they get right back up and start attacking their friends as a zombie."  
  
"That's impossible!" Dr. Diggers snapped. "It takes days to prepare a body to be turned into a zombie."  
  
Nodding, Sgt Loval agreed. "I know sir, but I've seen it several times so far as we fought our way through the city to get here."  
  
"What kind of magic can do that?" Julia wondered. She wasn't all that knowledgeable about magic, but she knew enough to know that making a Zombie or any kind of undead took a couple of days per body at least. That's why undead armies were so uncommon in the first place; the power that went into making one was just enormous. "Theo?"  
  
"I'm not to sure, if my father was running around I could understand it, but he's been quiet ever since I cut him off from his magic within the undead realm." Dr. Diggers explained. "I might know what could do this, but that cursed thing has been lost for over a thousand years. Even my father wasn't able to get his hands on it after he died a he looked for close to twenty years."  
  
"Sir?" Asked the confused Paladin, though it would be just like the Council to withhold information that might be vital to the fight.  
  
"I need to get back to the base palace at the base of the Great Tree." Dr. Diggers said suddenly. "We need to get to the Council and see if we can get this sorted out before too many people die."  
  
"Then lets head over there, it's just a few streets away." Julia said, though she covered up her sudden apprehension. Something about the base palace was making her danger sense tingle a little, something both good and bad.  
  
"Sir, the teleport blocker spells have been up for about half an hour now." Sgt. Loval explained as he interrupted their thoughts. "You will have to take the stairs if you want to get to the top."  
  
Theo frowned and nodded even as his wife smirked. "I had suspected as much."  
  
"Time for a bit of a workout, husband." Julia said.  
  
He nodded. "Maybe, Let's go and see if we can find a faster way to get up those stairs."  
  
"What did you have in mind?" Julia asked as they walked off and let the paladin's get back to work fortifying the rest of the street.  
  
"There are only ten of us on the council and most of them should still be there if we hurry."  
  
"Alright, but lets be careful as well." Julia said, her danger sense was still giving her bad feelings and she wasn't sure where the attack would come from. She rested her hand on the hilt of her sword and wondered just what the rest of the day would bring. Hundreds had died that day the Undead invaded that town in the Earth Realm. This whole situation was in a whole different class and it could very well mean the death of Seer's Hamlet itself as well as one of the main entrances to The Retreat.  
  
**********  
  
The base palace at the base of the great tree had never seen anything like this before in the history of Seer's Hamlet. Those that were on hand to witness G'nolga and about a thousand undead skeletons, five hundred zombies, and ten undead knights make their way through the streets were scared out of their minds at the sheer size of the army being used to secure the city. As quickly as they arrived they had the small base palace surrounded by wall after wall of undead creatures. The central location of the Great Tree and the Small base palace at the base made surrounding it quite easy. The original idea had been to keep buildings far enough away that the paladin's could see anything heading for the base palace, but with an army this big that concept just didn't work and placed them at disadvantage.   
  
This was the second line of defence for the city and was where most of the city's Paladin army was housed when they weren't doing anything else. At any one time during the week there were anywhere from 200 paladins at a minimum to over a thousand stationed at the building to guard the staircase that circled the tree that rose up from the back of the building and towered over the while city. At the moment there were only a hundred paladin's inside the building with the rest of them deployed around the city to help hold off this very army. Because they hadn't had any forewarning of the invasion they'd been caught off guard. The building had instantly thrown up a powerful shield of magic to keep the undead beasts out, but it only had a limited effectiveness. Normally there would have been a member of the council on hand to help beef up the shield in a crisis situation, but something had gone wrong and he hadn't shown up so the shield was running at low power.   
  
Good enough to keep out normal humans, but and undead army of this size would quickly whittle down the power of the shield and everyone knew it. Paladins rushed through the corridors to take up their assigned defensive positions as quickly as they could. As protectors for a city set up by wizards they all had access to some of the best magical weapons that could be mass produced in a short time by the council itself. Every bit of the armor that covered their bodies was magical in some way. It could survive magical impacts of lethal force, it increased their physical abilities by almost ten and made each and ever member of the paladin army incredibly dangerous. Against the small force of undead they wouldn't have even blinked an eye as they pulled their swords. An undead army of thousands on the other hand placed them at a disadvantage that even their magic couldn't overcome. The sheer number of them could overwhelm any paladin and they knew just by looking out any of the windows that things were very, very bad.   
  
Not like it would stop them though, Paladins were the elite of the elite when it came to soldiers. They had to have at least five years of experience with any army in the world before they could even join and that was just enough to allow them the chance to join. They also had to have a good reputation just to make it past that little hump in the road. So they knew how to defend themselves and so long as the shield held they would have a chance. After that the large entrance door to the base palace was secured with heavy wood and iron bars that would keep the undead busy for at least half an hour or so as they used a ram to knock it down. After that they had the advantage of a building that had been designed to keep a siege like this busy in a small maze of corridors that lead to the back of the building where the Stair Room was located.  
  
The Captain General or CG for short stood at the center of the room as the main door to the base palace was secured by five of his men. They all strained as they used all their strength to lift the huge bare up to rungs on either side of the door. He had always marvelled at the design of the door and recalled that one of the council had used a bit of knowledge from Earth to set them up. Once the bar was in place its weight would bare down on it with such force that nothing short of obliterating the door itself would be able to get through. With one final loud grunt his men relaxed and turned to him for further orders. .   
  
"Alright men, get to your posts, those things will be attacking the shield at any moment and we don't think it will last more than a few minutes. Be sure to have your weapons ready to decimate the enemy. They will not get past this building even if we have to use the last resort to stop them. Private, you will stay here and help me out." A private among the Paladins has the military experience of a Master Sergeant, so Private was kind of misleading. As with all Paladins he wore the full body red armor, helm, shield, and various magical items including a long sword and the magic of the armor itself. The CG on the other hand had a shoulder cape edged in gold, a large axe on his back, and a special gauntlet that only those of his rank or above could have  
  
"Yes Sir!"  
  
He pointed at two others before they left the room. "You two, I want you to set up some protection on the Stone."  
  
They saluted by banging their left fist against the right side of their breast plate and hurried to fulfill the order. The CG nodded, they were all working like they were supposed to, but he was a bit worried that his lack of man power would mean the end of them. A hundred men against over a thousand undead were horrible odds and even if they managed to trap the things inside the base palace and had time to activate the Last Resort plan there was a good chance most of them would be dead here pretty soon. He turned as one of the other paladins ran into the room and made his way over.  
  
"Sir! The Army is beginning to make their move." The guy said between breaths.  
  
"Then it seems we got the preparations done just in time, lets get to work, and we have ten of most important men on Jade to protect at all costs." The CG said with a nod.  
  
Outside the base palace hundreds of skeletons grunted and groaned as they pulled on long ropes connected to a couple of large catapults. Dressed in loin cloths for some reason they were all just a bit different, with missing bones or wearing a helm here and there as they worked to get the huge things into position around the four corners of the base palace. They ignored the glistening dome of energy that was surrounding the place as they knew that it wouldn't be there for long. Helping to keep the whole group in order were a pair of Undead Knights upon horses commanding each squad of skeletons. They were silent, but they some how managed to get their point across when the skeletons didn't work fast enough. Usually by shattering the trouble makers into smaller pieces and letting the giant wheel of the catapults crush these into powder, there was no returning from that.   
  
Behind the catapults were several hundred skeletal infantrymen with various kind so of armor. These were broken up into large groups of fifty or so and had an Undead Knight commanding each one of them. At that moment they were all kneeling on the ground and keeping absolutely still, though there was a hint of energy in their eye sockets that testified to just how combat ready they truly were. Each of the Undead Knights watched each other's groups to make sure they didn't have any deserters or trouble makers. Skeletons were notoriously stupid so they had to be careful how large groups of them were used in any given situation. Commanding them to 'attack' used up all their mental abilities, especially the old ones that had forgotten how to talk. Behind these were a larger group of zombies outfitted with bows and shields to give covering fire to the skeletons. They were also the replacement troops for when the skeletons were all destroyed. These stood at attention with their bows at the ready, but with out holding an arrow set to fire.  
  
Wandering through all this was G'nolga as she dispassionately checked the things over and made sure they were ready to do as she commanded. As the only living person there she stood out quite a bit with her long dwarven looks, rock hard muscles, and bald head. She was wearing a bit of light armor detailed with various designs to make her stand out as the commander. She had her tri-staff strapped across her back and sword at her side as well as several other hidden weapons that she always carried with her. Over all she didn't care for the thing and had discarded the other bits and pieces of it along the way here through the grass lands outside the city. There wasn't anyone around to complain anyway and she had a job to complete. She turned to the tall Undead Knight that was walking along beside her as silent as death.  
  
"You're sure everyone is in position?"  
  
It nodded.  
  
G'nolga nodded as well and turned her empty and nearly lifeless eyes on the base palace as its shield glistened in the late afternoon sun. This was just the first of three steps she would have to accomplish before the day was out. Rook had given her orders to have the base palace, the Great Tree, and the town in order before he arrived later that night. With an army that even at that moment was still pouring into the city there was little chance of failure and she had no intentions of failing now. With the final creak of a wheel as one of the catapults was loaded with a large stone, she raised her left arm into the air and an aura of anticipation filled the air as thousands of skeletons watched her every move. All around her the Undead Knights that commanded each of the smaller groups raised their swords high.   
  
Inside the base palace word spread like fire that the attack was about to begin and the paladins pulled their swords out and prepared to fight for their lives. The CG narrowed his eyes and hoped the shield would hold against the horde in front of him, but he didn't really put much hope into it. Everyone else just prepared as best they could and knew that at the end of the day that most of them would be dead, but they would make the enemy pay heavily for their lives before they went down. They just kept reminding themselves that undead were easy to take down, skeletons shattered and zombies burned. Then there was an eerie silence as all eyes turned on the one living being among the undead army as her arm raised high with its fist close.  
  
"ATTACK!" G'nolga yelled at the top of her lungs and dropped her gauntleted arm.  
  
The undead knights dropped their swords at the same time and pointed them at the base palace. They stood still as the skeletons rose out of their kneeling positions and surged toward the glistening barrier of light yelling at the top of their magically enhanced lungs. Behind them the archer zombies moved forward at slower pace, waiting for the skeletons to do their jobs. Herded forward by the Undead Knights, the skeletons were soon pounding on the barrier with the full magical force that only the undead could achieve. With thousands pounding on the thing all at once it quickly started to show the effect of those blows. Inside the base palace the paladins resigned themselves to the unlucky chance that the field just might hold out against the force, but there wasn't a mage there to help maintain its strength and it was running on stored energy that wouldn't last for more than few minutes.  
  
Paladins on the roof of the base palace steeled themselves as they manned their own smaller version of the siege catapults below. These were able to fire balls of flaming pitch several hundred yards and were aimed right at the zombies in the back of the army. The things were highly flammable so there was a chance that they could get hundreds of the things with just a few shots from the catapults. They were also preparing themselves for when the base palace's magical barrier went down and things started to get bloody. Waves of rainbow like colors started to form within the dome as it used the last of its energy against the constant onslaught of the skeletons as they tirelessly pounded and pounded on the barrier. Orders were sent to each of the stations that they were to fire the instant the barrier went down in the hopes that they would catch the attackers by surprise with such a sudden attack.   
  
Most understood that it wouldn't really do much, if any good, but they had to do something to protect the stairs and keep the council safe from all harm. Then one of the Paladins pointed to the top of the dome where a hole was forming as it collapsed from the top down. Both sides watched as the dome fell a few seconds later and moved at almost the same time to truly engage each other. The paladins lit the catapults and sent a dozen balls of fire flying into the sky to rain down on the zombies even as the skeletons ran forward with ladders and several teams of carrying a large battering ram. The Siege engines were also fired and huge one ton stones rose up into the sky and fell down upon the base palace with and earth shattering implosions of stone as whole walls collapsed under the sheer mass of the things.   
  
From every window in the base palace something was fire at the attacking army and the skeletons were annihilated under the combined might of lightning, fire, and bolts of explosive magic. Some of them even screamed as they were blown to pieces, but no one really had time to think about it in the heat of battle. For every skeleton that was destroyed though, two more would take its place among the growing number of enemies. From behind the zombies who were still functional were formed into a large group by several of the Undead Knights, at G'nolga's order, and they raised their bows at an angle and fired. Row after row sent a wave of barbed death high into the sky nearly two dozen times. While on the roof the catapults were rearmed as arrows rained down on the paladins. Several lucky shots got through the thick armor and killed or injured several of them. Two took direct hits through the small eye holes in their helms and died instantly.  
  
Down on the ground G'nolga looked up at the roof and grinned evilly as she finally sensed what she had been waiting for. It wouldn't be long now, all she had to do was keep the pressure up and the building would fall like a deck of cards. She turned to Undead Knight that never left her side. "Keep the pressure on, we are just within grasp of a major victory and the stairs will be ours to with as we please."  
  
It nodded and raised it's sword to send a silent command to the other Undead Knights and within minutes the whole army was attacking the base palace. She wasn't worried about losses either, it wasn't like they would run out any time soon. Rook had been planning this for years and had taken into account everything he could think of, even outside interference from other cities. So she watched dispassionately as volley after volley of magical power was thrown from the windows of the base palace as the paladins used the magic stored in their armor to its fullest extent. She lost four to ten skeletons with every blast, but she ignored that as the zombies moved forward and gave a nod for the second phase to begin. Zombies were known to be fire hazards so armies that used them tended to make as much of them fire proof as possible with magic. About a third of her army was fire proofed and these were the most dangerous members of her force. Ex-bandits that the Edge Guard had recently been killing off, which was why Rook had hired them to harass the locals in the first place, though getting them the fire proofing had proven to be quite a hassle. He got to keep the money he owed them and got even more cannon fodder for his army, a win-win situation as far as he was concerned.  
  
"Keep the siege catapults firing on those same four positions, the walls should come down fairly quickly and they aren't as magically hardened as the front gate is. We can use all four breaches to invade the base palace." G'nolga said as she noticed that the large catapults were nearly ready to fire again.  
  
The Undead Knight nodded and seconds later the huge machines fired again and G'nolga grinned. The base palace would be hers within the hour, there was no doubt about it now that the whole plan was coming together like a well oiled machine. She cocked her head to the side and glanced up at the roof again and nodded as she finished counting to sixty. Now it would truly begin and those inside would learn just how strong this army truly was. As at that moment two soldiers with arrows through their heads suddenly sat up and orders filled their undead minds as the Undead Knights forced their will upon them to stand up and attack everything that lived.   
  
All around them the other paladins failed to notice what had happened as they struggled to hold off the ladders and the zombies that were climbing them as quickly as they could be thrown off. So the first thing they knew that anything was wrong was when they caught a bit of movement out of the corner of their eyes just as a sword was thrust through one's back and out his chest and wrenched out. The zombie paladins then turned on their next targets with the calculated precision of a machine and moved to kill them as well. For a frozen moment everything seemed to stop as the paladins realized what was happening and they hesitated. That was all that was needed for a wave of zombies to top the base palace walls and swarm them from all directions. Within seconds the roof of the base palace was quiet as two dozen more zombies in red magical armor suddenly joined the ranks of the Undead Army.  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
End Notes - BWhahahahaha HAHAHAHAH  
  
The Edge Guard: http://www.monmouth.com/~roxikat/edgeguard.htm  
  
Sheila is Gar's sister. She has a rare werecat birth defect where her human form has her strength and speed instead of her hybrid form. She's an adult in a teenager's hybrid form. She chooses her hybrid form in combat usually because her human form lacks the healing and jagwere dexterity. Also, she's accepted more as 'one of the guys' when she's small, not as a gorgeous damsel to be put on a pedestal to court. Despite her insisted maturity, she uses words like pow and kapowie. Most of her elemental attacks are based around them. She's infatuated with Tirga, but refuses to let him know.  
  
Race: Jagwere  
  
Class: swashbuckler/ fighter  
  
Weapon: Ice Fang, scimitar  
  
Special Ability: The fastest healer in hybrid form.  
  
Gar is second in command of the Northern Edge Guard. A dark and brooding warrior since Brittany Diggers spurned his affections after he tried to defeat her lover Stripe in hand-to-hand combat. Since he was trained by the famous armsmaster, Julia Diggers, the fight was nearly his. Gar refuses to let go for reasons of his own. But Julia taught him first and foremost to have patience without hesitance.   
  
Race: Jagwere  
  
Class: Martial artist/ fighter  
  
Weapon: Thunder Edge, partisan (spear)  
  
Special Ability: During a solar eclipse, Gar can focus his power to perform the Lunar Rave, increasing his strength, speed, and size.  
  
Tirga is a hedonistic, vain womanizer, who relies on his charm to get out of most scrapes. But behind his fun-loving demeanour, Tigra is a cautious, secretive person. Often uses disguises to blend into his surroundings when tracking his quarry.  
  
Race: Were-tiger  
  
Class: Rogue/Tracker/Tactician  
  
Weapon: Fire Claw, morning star mace  
  
Special Ability: His powers of vanity allow him to grow his hair to any length or style to aid in his disguises.  
  
Onoli is the leader of the Northern Edge Guard, and their strongest and wisest member. Raised in bushido schools of thought, Onoli lets little disturb his tranquility. Well-versed in the laws of the Retreat, he makes an eloquent public speaker at the Council.  
  
Race: Were-lion  
  
Class: Samurai  
  
Weapons: Seraphim and Necro, swords of Light and Dark soul energy. The Jasper - Rain   
  
Thropan is a mechanical artifact expert as well as a mechanical and magical engineer. He rebuilt and modified the standard issue Edge Guard elemental weapons and gear with his own experimental designs including the device that lets them gate around. With science and technology outlawed on Jade, Thropan toes the line with all his technological experiments using magic for power.  
  
Race: Were-panther  
  
Class: Magical engineer/ martial artist  
  
Weapon: Earth Flail, dragon's claw (bladed nunchaku)  
  
Special Ability: Master of the School of Xiao Pai Long 


	12. Chapter 11

Notes - Here's the next part, it details more of what happened in the last chapter and expands on several of the other characters at the same time. Even Ranma and Sheila. It will also be introducing the last of the newest characters or reintroducing one that hasn't been seen since ch 09a.  
  
Web Site: http://shi_hanna.tripod.com/  
  
**********  
  
Golden Opportunity  
  
Chapter 11  
  
Cory D. Rose  
  
ertle2@msn.com  
  
(c) 2003  
  
**********  
  
"This is a disaster Theo." Julia said as the two of them watched the attack on the base palace from the roof of a house some distance away. It was a two story house was just large enough to have a small storage area at the very top of the building. From the poor workmanship they figured it had been added some time after the house had been built originally. From where they were standing, smoke and fire could be seen rising from portions of the palace as the attack continued, thousands of skeletons united in an unending attack.   
  
Theo just grunted. "This is worse than a disaster. I've never seen an attack quite like this one before. How could such a thing be set up without anyone having any clue about it?"  
  
"You don't think your father is behind this do you? All these undead would be exactly what I'd expect him to use."   
  
"I don't think so. He's powerless now that he isn't drawing his power from the Ether of the Undead Realm."  
  
Julia glared at all the skeletons as they battled the remaining paladins. "He may not have the power to rule the Undead Realm anymore love, but could he perhaps have opened a gate way and let all these undead through?"  
  
Rubbing his chin in thought, Theo took a second to think about what she was saying before he decided that it shouldn't have been possible. "No, when I cut him off from the Realm he barely had the power to cast a light spell. But I think that you may be right about a gate to the Undead Realm. If that is the case though, I need to get inside that base palace even more than I did a few minutes ago. There are special magical items up in the High Palace that are able to detect things like that. De'em used to use something similar when he was fighting that Venger guy a few years back."  
  
"Even if we got through all those undead and made our way to the staircase room, it would still take us at least three hours to climb the stairs." Julia reminded him. She was all for exercise, but she thought the set up this place wasn't thought out enough. It had too many holes in the security and no way to overcome them in an emergency.  
  
"No, there is another way than taking the stairs, but it's inside the base palace and needs an Arch Mage like me or any of the others on the council to activate it."  
  
"A magical gate of some kind?" Julia asked; she had a little experience with this stuff from all the adventuring she used to do.  
  
Theo nodded. "It used to be the only way to the top, before they even installed the stairs, these days almost no one knows about it. The Captain General doesn't know what it is either, just that he's been ordered to protect it just as much as the stairs. Though he is quite smart so there is a possibility that either he or one of his men might have guessed what it is. That is why we need to get inside as quickly as possible, before this turns even worse than it already is."  
  
"Is there no way to teleport into the base palace itself, to bypass all these undead?"  
  
"No, I helped design the spell that's in place right now to prevent just that sort of thing. It was done so the enemy couldn't do just that. I could cancel the spell given enough time, but I made it so no one could work around it without being in a certain place. Which happens to be inside the blasted base palace." Dr. Diggers explained. If they survived this he would have to make some improvements throughout the whole system just to make sure he had more options the next time something like this happened.  
  
"I don't see any way to get into that place without one of these brainless piles of bones noticing us. Though we might disguise ourselves and kind of blend in with army to get inside." Julia said, though she sounded very unsure of the plan. "We might have to come up with something else, that plan is just lame."  
  
"Like what? I can call down enough power to level half that army right now, but that would only alert them that we are here and who knows how many of those things have been enhanced. Or how many of them can be called up attack us once we begin to fight them."  
  
"Then how about we contact some of the Edge guard and a few others to form of team that can help bring things together."   
  
"You mean Ranma and the others?" Dr. Diggers asked.  
  
Julia nodded. "Ranma isn't up to my standards, but he should be able to stand up to even the best fighters at the moment and he's learned over half of the moves he learned from those books he got from Shangri-la. He still has a way to go, but he did defeat Gar and that is no easy feat. Gar was a werecat at the time and Ranma still won."  
  
Theo shook his head. "I don't feel right brining him into this. He isn't even close to being ready to take on an army of undead."   
  
"Well we may not have a choice." Julia explained and pointed down the street a bit to where Ranma and Sheila were scouting out the situation as well.  
  
Dr. Diggers frowned. "I expected this to happen, but I thought they would find the other Edge Guard before getting this close to the army of undead."  
  
Something occurred to Julia and she glanced at her husband. "You don't suppose that Onoli is still at the High Palace at the top of the tree do you?"  
  
Theo nodded. "He just might be, he had that report to give and this attack started a little while after that. With the teleport gate at the top blocked he just might do something like come down the stairs to make a surprise attack."  
  
"The responsibility that boy takes on himself at times." Julia muttered as she shook her head.  
  
"Then lets go and collect the rest of the Edge Guard, this is likely to take a major battle to pull off."  
  
"I think so too. It's a good thing that Healing Breath move I learned for the Tournament of Arms regressed my aging so much. This is going to tax even me." Julia said as she loosened her sword in it's sheath for the fourth time in as many minutes.  
  
"Ranma and Sheila are moving off, back into town and away from the army." Dr. Diggers said. "Let's get after them."  
  
"Alright."  
  
**********  
  
"What are we expected to do now that this undead Army has invaded the city?" Ranma asked as he and Sheila looked around the corner of the house at the army of undead surrounding the base palace.  
  
Sheila gave him an odd look. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Well we have to stop them right?"  
  
She nodded, still confused by the question. "Yep."  
  
"Just how are we supposed to do that? There are thousands of them and only a few of us." Ranma pointed out.  
  
"Ah, that may be true, but undead are pretty easy to defeat one on one, it's when they get in large groups that different methods have to be taken. For example, while we were out in the swamp earlier if only one or two of those undead animals had been around we could have taken care of them easily. Instead there were hundreds of them and even a couple of very powerful fire balls didn't even stop them."  
  
Ranma nodded as he remember casting that large fireball and just how little damage it did to those things.  
  
"The same thing will happen here inside the city as the undead converge on their goal, but instead of just you and me to take care of them, there will be thousands of people around to destroy them. That means that we will only have to deal with a few dozen or so at the most and maybe a few groups worth. If every fighter and mage in the city takes out about ten or so, the army will be whittled down to almost nothing very quickly. If not the whole place will be overwhelmed by their numbers alone." Sheila explained. "Lets move away from here now, there are way to many of those things for just the two of us to take care of."  
  
"But..." He started.  
  
"Don't complain about it Ranma, there are times when we have to swallow our pride and know when to ask for help. Two people can not fight ten thousand undead monsters head on and survive. We need to find a different way to kick them out of the city." Sheila said as she gave him a side long glare.  
  
Ranma sighed and nodded; no matter how much he disliked walking away from a battle she was right. There was no way he could take down that many of the undead, no matter how strong he was. "What did you have in mind?"  
  
"Gar is usually our second in command and he leads most of the fights. With him out of it for the next few weeks we need to rely on either Onoli or..." Sheila frowned a little and looked away. "Tirga."  
  
"That weretiger that attacked me that one time?" Ranma snapped.  
  
Sheila nodded. "Yeah that's him. He is a very good fighter and leader, but he tends to let his lusts get the better of him."  
  
"Your kidding?" Ranma asked sarcastically.  
  
"Oh no, he once lead twenty men into a burning church to save all the monks and make sure the library attached to the building didn't go up. Then right in the middle of the celebration party he tried to seduce one of the nuns."   
  
Ranma laughed. "He just won't back down will he?"  
  
"No, but he will do when Onoli or Gar aren't available."  
  
"What about that other guy? Thokane?"   
  
The female werejaguar gave him a weird look then realized what he was talking about. "You mean the Thropan? The werepanther?"  
  
"Um...yeah, I think that's him." Ranma said with a couple of nods. He wasn't paying attention to his surroundings as they moved deeper into the city and closer to the front lines of the fight against the undead army.  
  
"Thropan has a somewhat bad reputation I'm afraid. He's very smart and is responsible for designing almost all of the magical weapons the Edge Guard uses, but his talents are sometimes to close to breaking the No Technology rule that the general public won't accept him as a leader. So he keeps to the background for the most part, builds weapons, and goes on a lot of solo missions for Onoli and the Council."  
  
"Alright then, is there any way we can contact anyone from that Retreat you are protecting to get any help?" Ranma wondered.  
  
B, who was still following along behind them started coughing as he heard the question. "Coughbrainlessmoroncough!"  
  
Ranma didn't turn around as he heard the little bot, but he did role his eyes.  
  
Sheila shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. That alarm you heard earlier signaled the city, letting those who needed to that all teleports within the city would be impossible until someone from the High Palace counteracts the alarm. Even the gateways into the Retreat have been closed for the time being."  
  
They walked along in silence for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of battle going on some ways to the west. Out near the outer edge of the city where Ranma knew that most of the city militia was set up doing what they could to stave off the invasion. He wanted to run over there and join in, but felt it was his place to be here and to protect Sheila in case she needed saving from something. Though he wasn't that worried, she seemed to have a large dose of independence in her. "Hmm..."  
  
She gave him another glance.   
  
"Well what if we found that guy from earlier? Ashaton? I'll bet he would be a lot of help and he looked like he knew how to protect himself. You even said he defeated some Undead Knights to defend you a couple nights ago."  
  
"That may work, but I don't know where he is and finding him during this crisis will be even harder than finding the other members of the Edge Guard."  
  
Ranma shrugged. "So? We'll just keep an eye out for him and ask around for the guy with the huge sword on his back. It's not like you can forget that thing the instant it's out of sight."  
  
"True, but we will have to take care of a few other things as well."  
  
"Like what?"   
  
Sheila pointed down a nearby street as they walked by and Ranma noticed that there were a large number of people setting up a barricade in the middle of the street. All of them were carrying various kinds of weapons and tools as they worked to set up a large evil looking wooden structure. He even recognized that one of the civilians was wearing a grey mage suit underneath his coat and gloves and would occasionally cast a spell on the wood. From the looks of things everybody knew what they were doing, so he was a little confused.  
  
"Do you want me to help them get that set up?"  
  
"Not that! Me, you, and the rest of the Edge Guard have to be on constant alert for undead anywhere we might be in the city. The paladins will take care of the citizen militia like those guys and sets to the work doing various things around the city. While the Edge Guard mobilizes to take down the main threat or to stop the thrust of the attack, we've got the easy job." Sheila said with a smirk.   
  
"That seems to be a bit much." Ranma said as they walked past the street and continued on down the road, keeping an eye out for any of the people they were looking for.  
  
"It is a big responsibility, but normally we would have had some kind of advance warning that this was coming and had time to set a couple of plans in motion. I'm not sure how they did it, but they got through all our barriers and magical detection devices without activating them. That has me worried, but if we are to do anything besides run around and save people randomly, we will have to find Onoli or Tirga I guess. Either of them should be able to help us out in some way."  
  
"So where do we begin?"  
  
"I was thinking that Onoli was to give a report to the mage council this morning. So our best bet would be to head over to the High Palace and head up the stairs to see if he's up there." Sheila explained in a rather resigned voice. "That of course is impossible at the moment with all those undead surrounding the base palace."  
  
Ranma nodded. "What about..."  
  
"Sheila!"   
  
They stopped and turned to see Sammi from the bar she had gotten into that fight with Hanza. Then she noticed what Sammi was wearing and nearly facefaulted right then and there. Sammi was a short girl, small in every way that counted and could barely be called a fighter at the best of times. So it was with a bit of surprise that the girl seemed to be wearing an iron pot over her head, a lid to some large pot over her chest and tied in place with a string, and her waitress outfit under it all. "Hey! What are you doing out at a time like this...dressed in that thing?"  
  
Sammi dove in for a hug and grinned up at Sheila. "I haven't talked to you in ages!"  
  
Sheila gave Sammi a weird look then just shrugged. "Sorry, I've been busy."  
  
"Me too! Hey is this that guy you were telling me about that day?" She said and pointed thumb at Ranma, giving him a look over.  
  
"Um...oh yeah, this is him." Confirmed the rather confused werejaguar.  
  
Turning serious, Sammi walked around Ranma as if examining a side of beef. It made him feel rather uncomfortable for some reason as she eyed his stomach and lower regions for several seconds and wondered if she was going to actually reach out and touch him. "Um..."  
  
"HE'S GOURGOUS!" Sammi screamed and bounced from foot to foot. "I never thought you would get over that Tirga guy!"  
  
Blushing a little, Sheila tried to quiet the girl down a little and ignored the odd look that Ranma gave her. Then she hit upon an idea. "Sammi, this is Ranma. Ranma this is Sammi, a friend of mine."  
  
"Hello." Ranma muttered.  
  
"HIHOWAREYOUDOING! I'MSAMMIANDIWANTTOKNOWEVERYTHINGABOUTYOU!" Sammi said at super fast speed.  
  
"Um..." Ranma muttered; he'd never had to deal with girl quite like this before.  
  
"Sammi, we don't have time for that now? Why are you running around outside like this when there are undead monsters invading the city?"  
  
Sammi squeaked and jumped back a foot or so and paled. "I forgot! I have to go and buy some flour for when the paladins come into eat! Gotta go! Bye!" She yelled as she took off down the street.  
  
"Who the heck was that?" Ranma asked.  
  
"A friend, though she is the definition of the word ditz."  
  
"I see." Ranma said and exchanged a look with B who was still following them around.   
  
"Ranma, she's perfect for you!" B yelled. "Run! Catch her before she gets lost on the other side of the street!"  
  
What?!" Ranma yelled.  
  
Then B was crushed under a tiny werejaguar foot, shattering the ground around him as Sheila joined the conversation. Her eyes were glowing as she glared down at the little robot. "What. Did. You. Say?"  
  
"N-nothing..." B groaned out.  
  
"That's what I thought you said." Sheila growled out between clenched teeth, and then she smiled and turned to Ranma. In a perfectly happy tone of voice, as if she hadn't just tried to kill B with her foot, she asked him a simple question. "What do you think of my friend, Ranma?"  
  
B made some frantic motions to try and indicate that Ranma shouldn't even recall that the girl ever existed. This was kind of hard to do for a Peebo who's whole body was shaped kind of like a fat land mine and had no extra parts to show it's emotions other than it's eyes. Ranma didn't see a thing and just shrugged. "She seemed nice enough, but a little flighty if you ask me. She should learn a few martial arts moves and improve herself."  
  
Sheila's eyes were glowing again, expecting any kind of answer that Tirga might have given and got that instead. It quickly deflated her anger in mid snarl. "THAT...is, exactly what I would say too."   
  
"So how about we go and ask around for Onoli or Ashaton?" Ranma suggested, nervously. "I know someone must have seen them in the last couple of hours."  
  
B sighed in shock and rolled his eyes.  
  
Smiling happily Sheila turned and started walking down the street and Ranma breathed a very quiet sigh of relief and wondered how it was he kept running into scary women. Then looked down at B. "Geeze, I can't believe you said something like!?"  
  
"There is one thing I do know." B said with a rather shift shrug, as best a peebo could do one. "Though..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm stuck; think you could dig me out of here? Pretty please? With sugar?" It asked as it blinked up at him innocently, batting it's eyes a couple of times for effect.  
  
"If you ask me I should just leave you there." Ranma muttered as he knelt down to extract the mobile bomb from the hole.  
  
"I'll make you pay for that!"  
  
"Yep, I'm sure you will. But it won't be any time soon." Ranma said with a smirk. "She doesn't seem to have done you much damage."  
  
"HOHOHOHOHO! Like a little thing like her could damage a creation of Brianna Diggers!" B said as it laughed.  
  
"Ranma! Come on or I'll leave you behind!" Sheila yelled from half a block away and waved her sword around for effect.  
  
He sighed. "This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder."  
  
"You think this is bad? I think she scratched my paint." B complained as it tried to eye it's back side as it moved around in several circles.  
  
Ignoring the robot and knowing it could follow along with them just fine, Ranma jogged after his friend. They continued on their walk a few seconds later. "So Sheila how come I don't remember seeing the base palace from my first trip here? That and the Tree, thing is massive!"  
  
"You can only see them from a certain direction."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yeah, it's a protection measure they built into it a couple hundred years ago. If you approach it from the sides or the back you won't be able to find the place as magic subtly redirects you away from the place no matter how careful you are to approach it. To see it you have to walk down a certain street and this allows the paladins that guard it to see you coming and determine if you are a threat. Once you get close enough to see it you can then wander around the sides and even behind it if you wanted to. That's how the skeletons were able to surround the place."  
  
"How big is the place?"  
  
"I'd say large enough to hose about two thousand or so soldiers, two soldiers to a room with a bit of discomfort." Sheila said as she tallied up the number of paladins in her head.  
  
Ranma whistled. "That's huge!"  
  
"What's even weirder is that the whole place is for the paladins only, there isn't one person in the whole place with a drop of royal blood in them. The elegant style of the place is a distraction, in reality the place is one big maze of rooms and doors that can be used to isolate huge groups of people and keep them from making it to the room where the stairway to the Great Tree begins."  
  
"Then those undead won't be able to do much even if they take the place?"  
  
"I'm not sure, but with that many it wouldn't take much for all those things to fill the base palace from top to bottom."  
  
"Oh! Lets hope they don't do that then." Ranma said  
  
Sheila opened her mouth to continue, but right then a red armored paladin ran up to them from a side street and saluted. "Sheila of the Edge Guard?"  
  
She nodded in surprise.  
  
"There is a situation a couple of streets over and I was asked to see if you wanted in on the capture of a wanted criminal?" Then our Captain noticed you walking by a little while ago and remembered that you have a bit of a history with this one and sent me over here to let you know what was going on."  
  
"Just who are we talking about here?" Ranma asked.  
  
The guy turned and gave Ranma the impression he was looking down at a bug. "That is none of your concern go home and let the professionals take care of it."  
  
"Why you..." Ranma growled as he reached for an open section of the guy's breast plate just as the guy pulled back with a start and reached for his sword. Sheila moved between them and glared.  
  
"Calm down Ranma, they don't know who you are and they are trained to keep all civilians away from the battle zones unless they are part of the militia and you aren't wearing the armband."  
  
"Armband?"  
  
"He shouldn't be here; we have a job to do without people getting in our way." The paladin snapped and pointed at Ranma. "You, leave before I force you to."   
  
"Calm down." Sheila said. "He's with me, don't argue Private."   
  
"Yes Ma'am." He said, though Ranma could hear the contempt in the guy's voice.  
  
"Lead the way."  
  
The guy nodded and Ranma thought that wearing all that armor had gone to the guy's head. One thing Ranma had learned to despise over the years was a snob and this guy had all the signs. He could deal with a nasty attitude with ease and insults were useless against him, but every time he got within twenty feet of a snobbish jerk his fists began to itch. He had to resist the urge to grab the guy and peel that armor off his snobbish little body and beat the man to within an inch of his life for treating him with such disrespect.  
  
"Calm down Ranma, beating him up won't accomplish anything and we have to protect the city first." Sheila whispered to him.  
  
"Fine, but if he makes one more remark after this over I'm going to teach him some respect the same way my old man used to teach me." Ranma growled out. "Who do you think they might have caught?"  
  
"I'm not sure, but I have an idea or two. There aren't very many criminals within the city right now that would cause a paladin to ask for my assistance personally and that narrows the choices down quite a bit." Sheila said. "Let's wait and see what happens when we get there."  
  
The Paladin kept quiet as they walked and Ranma was quite sure that the guy was trying to find a reason to get rid of him. For the most part Ranma just ignored him though; he'd dealt with the type several times over the years. Arrogant students who just had to defend their position when he would come along and prove just how incompetent they really were.   
  
A few minutes later they rounded the corner and found themselves in an alley behind a nearby bar. It was one of those dead end types with a high wooden fence keeping people from using to much of it. There were two more paladins standing about half way down the alley with their swords out as they kept a very familiar looking person from getting away. She was wearing a black and green armor with a cape and a long staff strapped to her back and an evil look in her eye as she glared at the people around her. It also looked like she had tried to escape a couple of times already from the looks of the burns on her arms and legs.   
  
"Hanza!" Ranma snarled.  
  
"Just who I thought it might be." Sheila confirmed with a nod. They both had a grudge against the woman at the end of the alley and they could tell she didn't look to happy to see them either.  
  
Hanza growled when saw them and the look of anger on her face seemed to go up a few more notches as she turned a death glare on them. "Of all the places to run into you two!"  
  
"I didn't exactly expect to meet you here either Hanza, but since we got you here, you're under arrest for the murder of Raphiel Ray, a junior member of the Edge guard." Sheila yelled back. "I think we can also tack on Assault and Battery, Breaking and Entering, and anything else I can think of."  
  
One of the paladins looked at her from the corner of his eye. "Murder?"  
  
Sheila nodded. "She's the one that set the Compound on fire earlier this morning according to someone that I talked to, a witness."  
  
The guy nodded. "Let's take her down boys; this one thinks she has bigger teeth than she appears to have."  
  
Hanza smiled evilly. "You don't have a chance in hell you pathetic wannabe toy soldiers!"  
  
The paladins growled and all of them moved to grab their weapons, but Sheila stepped in front of them and shook her head. "She has a magic ring that allows her to turn invisible and move incredibly fast, so I'd like to try something else before we let you guys take her on." Sheila said as they looked at her. "Think you're up to fighting her again Ranma? You deserve a rematch with her."  
  
He grinned, cracked his knuckles, and punched his fist as he glared at one of the people that seemed to haunt his dreams lately. Calling him a loser over and over again and confirming just how much of a failure he was. "She caught off guard last time, this time I know what she's capable of doing and there is no way she can beat me."   
  
"Ha you wimp, you think five to one odds will be enough to stop me!" Hanza crowed as pulled her staff off her back and started to spin it lazily. "You paladin wimps are nothing compared to me either." She snarled. "Nothing! I've been trained by some of the best arms masters alive and you guys just don't compare."  
  
Pulling her sword Sheila smiled as she stepped to the side and motioned to Ranma. "That may be Hanza, but Ranma here is one of Julia Brigand Diggers advanced students and I truly doubt you have what it takes to take him on now that he's had time to learn about what you did last time."  
  
Hanza snarled and glared, if anything, even more hatefully than before.  
  
All three paladins turned to look at Ranma and seemed to give him a bit of grudging respect, though it was done silently. If Ranma noticed he ignored it completely as he walked forward flaring his aura high enough to make it look like he was covered in blue fire. "I've learned quite a bit since the last time we fought and no magic ring is going to be enough to save you this time."  
  
"So we're going to start with you? Don't make me laugh you wimp, I beat you once, I can do it again and with less effort." Hanza crowed as she got into a defensive stance.  
  
Ranma narrowed his eyes and noticed that he could see several different kinds of magic swirling around the girl in front of him. One of the things Dr. Diggers had taken the time to instruct him on was how to use his limited magic in a combat situation and up until now he hadn't had much of a chance to really let loose with it. With Gar he had used his martial arts skills combined with the Neko-ken to win against the guy, but this fight was going to be different. He'd had a lot of time to think about his mistakes and how to counter what she had done last time. Ranma held out his left hand and grinned. "I saw this in an anime once; you might get a kick out of it. All you have to do is watch the little birdie."  
  
"Huh?" Hanza asked. Who in the hell said something like in the middle of a fight to the death?  
  
A small ball of energy formed in Ranma's hand as he stared into her eyes. "Are you ready?"  
  
Hanza didn't feel like waiting for whatever trick he had up his sleeve, so she screamed and swung her staff in a cross wise killing strike that was nearly impossible to block from the stance Ranma was in. Then there was a burst of light that filled the alley that threw her aim off by just enough that Ranma was able to catch her staff with his free hand and kick her in the ribs with the force of a bomb. It shattered the front breast plate of her dwarven made armor, blew all the air out of her lungs, and catapulted her body through the wooden fence at the end of the alley and into someone's back yard in the blink of an eye. Surprise didn't even begin to describe what she was feeling right then. Then she hit the ground hard and rolled for several feet before she came to a rest beside a small fountain and desperately gasped for air that wouldn't fill her lungs. Her sight was fuzzy as Ranma calmly walked on over and smiled down at her innocently.   
  
"Sorry about not calling out my attack name, but we are at war so I thought I'd take you down as quickly as I could."  
  
"W-what wa-as th-at." Hanza forced out between a coughing fit.  
  
"Ah...just a simple spell I learned a few days ago."  
  
"Spell?" She croaked out as she realized that nearly all of her ribs were broken.  
  
Ranma nodded. "Dispel Magic."  
  
The paladins behind Ranma started to crack up at the look on Hanza's face as she realized that her magic items, the armor, the ring, and the staff were all very dependent on magic and with that one little spell Ranma had effectively disarmed her completely. Taking her down with one very powerful blow. Her things would regain their magic in a few hours, but right at that moment she was at his mercy and didn't like the feeling at all. She knew what she would have done in a similar situation and expected to be treated the same way. He had taken her out with a kick to the ribs. Strong enough that it had cracked or shattered every one of them just as easily as it had shattered the metal of her precious armor. Rolling over onto her stomach took all the strength she had, but if she could just get away everything would be fine. The pain on the other hand was a lot worse than she had expected and she had to fight off the tears that came to her eyes.  
  
"Sorry about the damage to your chest, I didn't think the metal of your armor would break like that. Back home we use armor too and it's designed to take that kind of punishment, who would have thought dwarven steel would be so fragile?" Ranma commented innocently as he reached down and picked up a piece and twisted it with his bare hands.  
  
This time the paladins just fell over they were laughing so hard.  
  
Ranma ignored them as he walked back over to pick up Hanza's staff and twirled it a few times. It was very heavy and completely unbalanced now that the magic had been dispelled from it. He turned to the Paladins as they finished laughing. "Are you guys going to arrest her or let her crawl off?"  
  
"Aye! Let's take her in boys!" One of them said and laughed some more as he pulled out some cuffs.  
  
"Good work Ranma." Sheila said as she grinned at him. "You just have to answer one question for me."  
  
"What is that?" He asked as he helped the paladins remove the rest of Hanza's now useless armor and put her in cuffs.  
  
"How did you cast such a strong version of Dispel Magic with only a few weeks of training in magic?"  
  
"Ah...well..." Ranma muttered nervously.  
  
"Only a few weeks?" One of the paladins asked suddenly. "It takes months to learn even the simplest spell and he's already casting them like this after only a few weeks?"  
  
Ranma rubbed the back of his head.  
  
"Damn! I've never heard anything like that before, then you must be a natural at using magic and those kinds of users are incredibly rare." One of the other paladins said as they picked up Hanza, she looked a bit shell shocked and in more than a little pain.  
  
The snob just snorted a little and watched Ranma out of the corner of his eye as the three of them dragged the girl out of the yard and out into the streets. From there they would take her to the nearest cell and have her sent to the mines as soon as possible. She was a murderer and that was an automatic life sentence. They vanished from sight a few seconds later and Ranma relaxed a little, those guys had been giving him the creeps.  
  
"Ranma, how long have you been planning to do that?" Sheila asked as she finally put her sword away.  
  
"Ah, well when she beat me so badly last time, her use of magic pissed me off, and I needed to find a way to overcome it if it could. At first I thought to learn magic myself and Dr. Diggers was more than willing to show me a few things, but when I had problems figuring out why my magic didn't work like his I started to think of other ways to fight her and the first answer I came up with was to get rid of her magical advantage. After that I was positive there was no way she could beat me in a duel. Then I finally figured my magic out and added several offensive spells to my techniques. Dispel Magic was one of the first ones I learned out of my beginners book."  
  
"That was amazing, but even I didn't expect you to take her down that fast." She said.  
  
"Heh, I'm the best."   
  
"Well Mr. I'm the Best, do you remember that there is full scale siege going on over at the base palace right this minute and we still haven't found anyone that could help us stop it? Thousands of undead soldiers attacking the place in wave after wave of gruesome destruction that bodes ill and all that crap?" B yelled as he wheeled up and butted Ranma in the foot a few times to catch his attention. "I just heard that the defenses of the palace have fallen."  
  
"What?!" Sheila yelled.  
  
"Go take a look for yourself." B said as he saw Ranma glaring at him again. "What? I just got bored watching you play with all these girls and went down there to check the place out on my own. Didn't you even notice I was gone?"  
  
"Let's go and check this out Sheila, it wasn't that bad when we were there earlier."   
  
"Are you sure things have gotten that bad, B?" Sheila asked the little bot.  
  
It nodded as best it could. "Yep, yep, those huge catapults finally managed to break down some of the walls and that was all the undead needed to get inside."   
  
"This is not good Sheila; just wandering around looking for your friends isn't working. We have to take a more direct method to deal with these things." Ranma muttered. "I hate not being involved in the fight when I can be of so much use."  
  
"It's about time you figured that out, cross dresser." B yelled as he continued to butt into Ranma's foot. Just to irritate the guy. "We'll smarten you up yet!"  
  
"B!" Ranma and Sheila yelled.  
  
"What? I have to motivate him somehow?" He said innocently.  
  
**********  
  
There were only twelve of them left now as they ran down the halls with a hoard of undead on their tail, if the sight wasn't bad enough, the smell of rotting corpses filled the air all around them making things ten times worse. The Captain General knew that there was a pretty good chance the base palace would fall this day. The odds had been overwhelming enough to make even him hesitate before going into battle, but even he hadn't anticipated that things would take a turn for the worse this fast. He glanced around him to get a better look at his remaining men as they ran in a last ditch attempt to make it to the sealed room just under the stairway as it climbed from the back of the palace and wound it's way around the tree above them. This wasn't something he wanted to do, but a last resort measure that had to be activated if the base palace was to fall to an enemy. With the things as they were now he had no choice in the matter an he was just hoping he would make it in time. Just getting to the room would take a miracle as far as he was concerned. The main portions of the base palace had already fallen as his men fell one by one and got back to switch sides. He recognized Necromancy when he saw it, a very rare magic that only the insane would use. What bothered him was that Necromancy required that the wizard reanimate the dead with a spell and that wasn't happening, instead all the dead were just getting up and following the orders of the Undead Knights as they stalked the maze like hallways of the base palace.  
  
His men were nearly dead on their feet as well and he prayed that none of them just dropped dead with the way things seemed to be working out. The magic of their armor was completely depleted now and it would be beyond help for at least twenty four hours before they could be used again. He knew that he wasn't completely drained yet as he glanced down at his gauntlet for a second. He figured he had enough magic left for one large blast of destructive energy or a couple of smaller shots, and then it too would be out of magic and leave them with only their swords. His gauntlet was a magic amplifier for offensive spells and could make low level attack spells fire off at ten times their normal fire power, a gift he had received years before from Gaja of the Edge Guard for performing a delicate service. Without its extra power he would never have been able to make it this far with the men he had left, he needed at least twice as many just to make it through the next battle. The gauntlet came in handy when he was being overwhelmed, sending waves of destructive energy out to decimate small portions of the never ending horde of monsters. He could blow skeletons and zombies to hell with any of his magical weapons, but that didn't matter when there were just so many of them running around in the first place.  
  
"Keep up the pace; we're only a few doors away!" He yelled at them, hoping it would help keep them from dropping right then and there.   
  
His men kept quiet, but they picked up the pace a bit as they descended a set of stairs, ran down a long corridor and managed to make it to the next room much quicker than expected. A couple of quick turns and drop walls managed to cut off the undead masses that had been following them for the last hour. Now they had a chance to relax a little as they systematically started to activate more drop walls and isolated this section of the palace. They managed to ignored all the sounds of the advancing skeletons and zombies as they swarmed into the now open front gate of the base palace a few minutes later, but knew that it meant the beginning of the end for them. They just had to pray that activating the last resort plan would be enough to protect the Higher Palace high in the Great Tree above. The Captain General leaned against the wall and took a second to recall what he had seen earlier; when he realized that the whole plan had failed miserably. He had watched as two of his own men, now undead paladins, shuffled up out of nowhere while his men were trying to fight off part of the latest attack and swiftly removed the locking bar and threw the door wide to let the enemy in. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes he would never had thought his men could be used against him like this.   
  
The worst thing though had been being unable to stop these freshly risen paladins from instantly attacking those they considered friends and converting them as well a few seconds later. The effect had been horrifying to watch and even worse to remember as he realized that it must be some form of Necromancy. He could tell that escaping from this place would probably be the last thing they ever did, but even this little group of survivors the he had managed to pull together during the last second retreat had a chance and that was all they needed to have even the tiniest bit of hope of survival. All they had to do was make it to the room set right underneath the stairway and activate the last resort plan set up generations ago when the thing had first built.  
  
"Sir! We're almost there!" One of his men said a few minutes later.   
  
"I know, Private." He said as he straightened up and looked around to see just how close they were and managed to hear quite a battle going on a couple floors up. "Lets get going, we can walk from here, it's only a few minutes away."  
  
"Listen to that, they have to be all around us!" Yelled one of the stragglers as his red helmet whipped from side to side, trying to figure out where the sounds of marching feet was emanating from.  
  
"Calm yourself soldier! Panic after we have the job done and not before!"  
  
"Aye Sir!" The nervous one said.  
  
Then they all heard the screaming from a couple floors away and they all shuddered a little as they realized a survivor had just been taken by the enemy and turned to their side. They had heard the scream at least a hundred times in the last half hour alone and always sent a chill through their bones and sapped their strength to the core. Hanging his head the Captain General started walking down the hall again and motioned for his men to follow him as best they could; they were running short on time. His shoulder cape was slashed in half and hanging off his back at an odd angle, evidence of when one of his own comrades had tried to kill him at the height of the siege a few hours before. The man hadn't even been undead, but a traitor that had killed the original private a couple months before when he showed up for the newbie's practice. He had never learned the man's name and would forever remember using his gauntlet to blast him to a fine red mist to survive the encounter. He wasn't positive, but he had a feeling that if he looked into the guy's past he would find that he was a bandit of some kind. Just like so many other bandits that seemed to be running around these days. All of the Edge Guards work hadn't managed to do anything except fill the local mine with convicts that he would bet were now among the zombies currently attacking the base palace.  
  
The long corridor finally made one final curve and they took a second to set off another couple of drop walls and sealed off the passage. From there the men continued on until they found themselves standing in front of a plain wooden door covered in metal bands. It stood about six foot tall and looked exactly like the rest of the doors used throughout the base palace, but in this case that was just it's disguise. Something used to keep people from going inside and even if they did all they would find would be a small storage room covered in dust. Great lengths had gone in to it's construction several generations back and only a few people knew what was in this room, even some of the council members were ignorant. The Captain General reached into a hidden pocket built into the inside of his armor and pulled out a large iron key and inserted it into the lock, carefully, so as not to trip one of the secondary defense spells placed on the lock itself. If a thief managed to actually get down here and tried to pick the lock, they would have instantly been teleported half way across the planet, leaving their clothing and everything else behind.   
  
Gaja, the old leader of the Edge Guard, had used his abilities to set up the trap by coordinating a spell with and old friend of his from the Retreat. At the same time a number of magical wards had been placed at various areas around the area to keep the wrong sort of people away. Up until today they had worked perfectly, but the Captain General would be the first to admit that something really weird was going on considering just how fast this invasion had happened. There was a loud click as he turned the key and a very small flash of light as the key vanished, then he pushed the door open and waved at his men to follow him. His men trooped in as swiftly as they could and quickly took up positions around the room. It was quite cramped except for a small walkway that ran down the center of the room to a small empty alcove at the back of the room. They all glanced around at the wooden boxes piled to the ceiling and looking as if they were all about to fall apart with old age. Then they noticed large amounts of dust that covered the room in a thick blanket and made it a little hard to see as they kicked the dust up moving around.  
  
"Are you sure this is the right place sir?" One asked as he gave the room a once over and found it very unsanitary.  
  
He just grinned. "Look at the floor." They all looked down to see just more dust collecting on their shoes and looked back at the Captain General with a confused air. "We all just walked into a room that is this full of dirt, in a building that is cleaned almost religiously by the most powerful spells the council could cast. What seems to be missing from the floor?"  
  
"I don't understand, sir."  
  
"Look closely, this may be the only time you'll ever see this room again so I want you to remember this. It's a lesson I had to learn and if any of you advance to my position one day you will be asked about this eventually."  
  
Turning back the Captain General shut the door with a soft bang and put his key back in it's hidden pocket after using it to lock the door from the inside. His men were all wandering around the room looking at the floor, looking more and more confused. If this situation wasn't at dire as it was he wouldn't have minded sitting on a nearby box and watching the men for the next day or so and getting a good laugh out of it. Sadly he didn't have time to pull such a joke, so he would have to cut this short. He would give them another minute to rest up a bit and get their minds off the undead army. Besides, they needed a short break.  
  
"Ah! I understand!" The first one yelled. "There's all this dust, but none of us are leaving foot prints in the dust!"  
  
The Captain General smiled; at least one of them had some brains underneath all that muscle and armor. "Correct! Everything in this room is a mix of misdirection and illusions to make sure it's secrets aren't discovered. The Council wanted anyone that found it to think it was a long forgotten room that hadn't been touched in centuries." The other paladins all wondered what the room could contain that would require a set up like this as the glanced around. None of them could tell what was real and what was fake or illusion.  
  
"Where to next sir?"   
  
He strode over to the wall were a pile of boxes looked like it had lain there for several centuries. "Through here."  
  
"Do we have to move the boxes? That pile looks like its about to fall on us anyway." The straggler muttered.  
  
"Nope! It's supposed to look like that." He said as he climbed up on top of the front box and stood in front of the next level in the pile, moved to the far left and counted six boards over and kneeled down, tracing his finger along the length of the board. The instant his finger stopped there was a barely heard click as the whole board moved back just the tiniest bit and the whole section in front of him swung inward on a pair of concealed hinges. His men gasped at the small crawl space that appeared. "Let's go! Last one in remember to close the door behind you."  
  
The tunnel was about three hundred feet long, about three feet by four feet, and hidden among the walls of the base palace. They all grunted and panted as they crawled along the long passage, it was to short to really let them stand up and walk easily, and hoped they wouldn't die in a place like this. They were paladins after all and had a reputation to live up to. Their full body armor made it impossible to move around inside this small space and defending themselves would be impossible if they were caught in here. The Captain General just kept his doubts to himself and continued forward to what appeared to be a complete dead end and paused for a second as he let the men catch up. The crawl space was hot, stuffy and situated in such a fashion that if they made to much noise they would be in a lot of danger, but luckily they were about ten feet underground right now. "From here we need to be extra careful, there is a chance that the enemy will hear us once we enter the room beyond this wall and if they do we will be trapped with no way to escape."  
  
"We understand sir; let's get out of here as quickly as we can. Being cooped up like this isn't what a soldier is for anyway. I'd rather fight." The smart one said.  
  
The Captain General nodded his helmet at them and traced a crack in the wall beside him with his finger. As his finger went down the crack, the wall blocking the hole slowly started to descend into the floor. For several seconds all that could be heard was the soft grind of rock against rock and the heavy breathing of a dozen men preparing to give their lives to complete their duty. Then the wall lowered enough for them to see the room behind and they were able to see an oddly shaped ceiling that rose from the floor and slowly rose several feet in the air, it was shaped like an inverted staircase. "This gentleman is directly underneath the stairway next to the Great Tree."  
  
"What are we doing here sir?" One asked as they all crawled into the small room and glanced around. They all glanced around the triangle shaped room and wondered why no one had ever noticed it before. It was large enough to hold most of them quite easily.   
  
"You guys are the only one's left alive right now, so I brought you along just for that reason. I'm here to do something that will piss off the mage council to no end, but they set up this plan as the Last Resort and in this situation I feel justified using it."  
  
"And that would be?"  
  
"Collapsing the Stairs." The Captain General explained as he walked across the room and stood in front of a stone wall that didn't quite match the rest of the stone around them. Instead of being lots of smaller ones, it was one huge piece that rose right up to the staircase ceiling. He patted the stone with his gauntlet and turned to look at his men.  
  
"What?!" Most of them asked.  
  
"We have lost and we have to keep these things from getting to the top at all costs."  
  
"But sir, that's crazy!"  
  
He shook his head. "I've thought this out for several years you know. We are safe in this room. It is the most heavily supported room in the whole base palace and can withstand tons of punishment."  
  
"But sir, there is nothing here to help us survive..."  
  
"Private, this is a last resort maneuver and one that keep those undead monsters from getting to the Higher Palace."  
  
"But to collapse the stairs!" Another one yelled.  
  
"We are all that is left." The smart one pointed out. "We need to stop the enemy at all costs, this plan just might work."  
  
"See, now all of you stand back while I crush this load bearing stone." The Captain General explained.  
  
"Are you sure this room won't collapse down upon us?"  
  
"Not really, but at this moment I don't really care if it does or not. With over a hundred of the paladins dead there is a good chance that I won't have a job for much longer anyways. I will do my duty and deal with the consequences later." He snapped as he tapped a small sapphire on his gauntlet and watched as its primary purpose was activated. Even with no magical energies left it always had enough to for this tack from a separate well of magic set into the metal itself. The glow quickly brightened in intensity as he placed his hand on the center of the stone. Once it reached full power all the energy would be shoved through the wall and shatter the stone into a pile of dust. The sudden loss of it's main load stone would set off a chain reaction through the lower portion of the staircase and collapse it from above. It would take at least fifteen minutes once he destroyed the stone.  
  
He could sense the energy building and was a bit curious why his gauntlet wasn't charging like it was supposed to. His men stood behind him in a small huddle waiting to see what would happen. So they failed to notice the gathering of a fine white mist across the floor of the whole chamber and began to gently drift back and forth across the room like a wave of water lapping at the shore. As the seconds ticked by the mist slowly grew thicker and thicker as the light from the Captain General's gauntly hid it's entry into the room. Then a dark female form rose out of the mist behind the men. It's physical features were a bit hard to make out, but one could see it's folded arms, the swell of its breasts and hips, and long hair tied in a pony tail that hung nearly to the floor.  
  
It's hand came up and fired a bit of white light at the Captain General even as that same hand curved into a claw and disemboweled the paladin in front of her, slicing through the red armor like a knife through butter. He died in a shower of blood, screaming with such intensity that the men froze in fear as they recognized it instantly. Shaking in total fear they all snapped their heads around to see the shadowy figure slowly dropping out of sight through the fog at their feet. It's giggle was the only sound it made and that was enough to scare them even more. Then it began as one after another they were systematically killed, one blow each, with a single scream that could freeze one's blood in the pits of hell. As the last one died she rose up out of the mist and turned to see the Captain General still standing by his precious stone, his gauntlet still glowing. Her head cocked to the side and one could tell it was grinning. She had cast a pause spell on the Captain General a few seconds before and he had no clue his men were dead. The only thing she hadn't been able to stop was the build up of energy, but it had been child's play to slow its gathering energy down to a crawl. The gauntlet was as old as the stairs themselves and had been worn by the Captain General for close to ten or twelve generations now. So it didn't have the modern day types of magic built into it like some items did.  
  
The mist faded and the shadows that covered her body slowly withdrew to reveal a very skinny woman in a skimpy outfit kneeling on the floor. Her hair was wild and unkempt as it trailed down her back and onto the floor. Then there were the two features that stood out the most, her eyes, which were sewn up as if someone had removed them long ago. And her teeth, which were pointed and blood stained. She slowly stood up with her arms hanging and walked over to the frozen Captain General and appeared to look at him. Her master had given an order to capture this one alive if at all costs; otherwise he would have been the first one to die during the battle. Grabbing on to his shoulder cape she used her magic to pull him back from the wall. The movement canceled the spell holding him in place and she threw him across the room, making the gauntlet discharge it's built up magical energy uselessly into the air to ruffle her shirt a little. The Captain General groaned as he realized something had gone wrong and looked up just in time to see the girl's foot connect with his face. He barely had time to throw his arms forward in a lame attempt to block when he realized that there was a bit of magic behind the kick. With a loud grunt he was lifted off the floor and sent crashing through the stairs that made up the ceiling of the room and out into the main room of the base palace.   
  
Stars danced before his eyes as he hit the wall next to the stairs, bounced off at an angle and landed hard. He rolled the rest of the way down the stairs, about ten steps or so before hitting the floor and sliding to a stop at someone's feet. Then he was grabbed him by his hair and jerked him to his knees and he found himself in front of G'nolga and noticed that there were about twenty of the recently deceased paladins standing among the ranks of the undead behind her. "Captain General, how nice of you to finally join us."  
  
"What's going on...?" He muttered as he looked up a little to see the red armor of one of his paladins holding him in place. There was a large hole where his stomach used to be, but he still had the unmistakable signs of a recently raised zombie.  
  
"You have something I want Captain and if you don't give it to me I will have to start torturing you to get it." G'nolga explained in her emotionless voice. She barely noticed as her pet ghoul floated up out of the room below the stairs and landed nearby with that weird giggle as she appeared to look right through his soul.  
  
"I won't give it to you." The Captain General groaned.  
  
"I believe you will, you haven't been all that cooperative so far, but I think you and your people will change that here pretty soon." G'nolga said. "Take him to the room next door; we can make him tell us what he knows from there. If he still resists we'll just wait until Rook gets here and we can have him killed and revived as an intelligent zombie instead of a mindless one. Go!"  
  
"I'll never talk!" He yelled as his former friend dragged him out of their room by his hair, down the hall a ways and threw him into and empty storage room.  
  
G'nolga turned to her pet and beckoned the girl over. "Did you get them all?"  
  
She nodded as she kneeled at G'nolga's feet.  
  
"You were not what I expected to find at the bottom of Rook's tower, but you have come in handy little ghoul. Your power has matured to a level that few of your kind has ever achieved. I think I know what your next assignment will be. Go up the stairs as fast as you can and secure the Upper Palace where the Mage Council is hiding out. Take as many of them alive as you can though, Rook needs them for the next part of his plan."  
  
The ghoul nodded again as she stood up, ran across the room and started bounding up the stairs five at a time. G'nolga watched her impassively for a few seconds before turning to the recently deceased paladin that had just returned from tossing the Captain General into the empty storage room. It plodded over and stood at attention. She wondered when the Captain would realize that she had lied to him a little. Even when turned most of the zombies just switched loyalties and could still function somewhat normally. Most of them had already told her what she needed to know about the base palace, but she still had a few unanswered questions. Like a lot of Rook's recently revived zombies this one looked nearly exactly like all the other paladins so it was nearly impossible to know which one you were dealing with. Rook had explained that the full body armor helped to make the paladins stand out a bit from the masses while keeping their identities a secret incase they were ever infiltrated. A good plan, unless you died and were converted over to the other side. "Where is the teleport node that allows instant transport to the higher palace in the tree above?"  
  
"Only those on the council itself have the activation magic to use that device." It explained.  
  
G'nolga growled as she walked out of the room and made her way to the main room of the palace where several of her undead knights were gathered with a small platoon of skeletons. She was going to post them in the room she'd just left and throughout the base palace to make sure no one had a chance to remove them. She was really hoping to find a quick way up to the top instead of taking the five hour climb. Things would work out better if they could start teleporting everyone up to the top right away. He had given her some very strict orders before she left with the army at her back and that meant she had a time table to keep. Climbing the stairs had been included in that table, but it was hoped she could find a way to bypass it like the other mage's of the council did. Rook had even explained that he had his transportation taken care of, whatever that meant.  
  
"Commander."  
  
G'nolga turned to look at one of the recently converted Paladins. "What is it?"  
  
"One of the Mage Council has just been spotted a few streets away and headed in this direction."  
  
"Oh? Which one?"  
  
"Dr. Theodore Diggers and his wife."  
  
G'nolga didn't show any emotion at all upon hearing either of the names; she just nodded and gave the orders to make her job a little easier. "Excellent, if anyone can use that emergency teleport node it's Diggers, kill his wife and bring him to me as quickly as you and the others can." She turned to one of the undead knights. "Round up several of the other Paladins to help you out if you think you need help."  
  
"Yes commander." The paladin said with a short bow.  
  
**********  
  
Life in the mines was always tough, it made a Dwarf out of you if you survived. At least that is what Tavis Stoneslicer had always believed and he was a Dwarf. Now however it seemed that the King had other things in mind other than mining. After surviving the beating that human had given him by using that thrice damned magic of hers, Tavis had woken up some place he hadn't wanted to wake up. In the Special Section, a hidden part of the mine that wasn't used anymore. It had no official name and only the King and his advisers knew where it was officially. To the rest of the mine it was nothing but a rumor with no way to prove or disprove if it existed. The instant he opened his eyes he instantly knew that it was no mere rumor and that he didn't want to be there. He was bandaged from head to foot, all his injuries treated with professional care and could even tell that they had forced him to drink a healing potion that was slowly healing him from the inside out. What scared him were the two Dwarves standing on either side of his bed with crossbows in their hands and giving him the evil eye, as if accusing him of betraying the mine by being beat up.  
  
They were wearing thick black leather armor, gloves, and weird cloaks that had their hoods up to disguise their faces. Even these were covered in a black facial mask that covered their eyes and left the beards to dangle down. What exposed skin he could see, which wasn't much more than a bit of the chin, was almost completely white, chalk white and it made then scary as hell. The King had endured several assassination attempts on his life from various factions in the mines that didn't like the way he ruled and his answer to this had been the Hidden Hammers. An elite group of Dwarves trained to take on any situation. They were the hidden body guards and a group that took out traitorous Dwarves from the shadows. In the last year alone over twenty Dwarves had been found with midnight black crossbow bolts sticking out of their heads. All of them had been well known for not agreeing with the King and working against him in attempt to ruin him. Surprisingly enough every time it happened the King would call a meeting of the Families and explain why he'd sent the Hidden Hammers after these individuals, presenting evidence that clearly showed that they were indeed plotting against the King.  
  
People were a little worried about the Hidden Hammers, but for the most part they were still only spoken of as rumors that were used to frighten small children. With two of them standing less than three feet away Tavis knew that even half of those tales were true, he would be one dead Dwarf if he didn't place his pick axe just right. The one on the left lowered his Crossbow and glared at him for a second. "Good you're awake, I'll get the Leader and let him talk to you."  
  
Tavis paled a bit and gave a slight nod. Life sucked, that was the only explanation for him being here, his life just sucked. The other member of the elite squad just stood there as if waiting for him to jump up and start killing people, his hand ready to pull the trigger on that weird looking crossbow in an instant if need be.  
  
A couple of minutes later the first guard, or one that seemed to be the first guard, came back with a slightly taller and even scarier looking member following him. The Dwarf was slightly stooped, wearing a pure black outfit that seemed to absorb the light before it could touch him, swathing him in darkness almost impossible to see through. They walked over to the bed and stared down at him for several seconds. The new comer raised a hand and the two guards stepped away from the bed and moved across the room where they appeared to vanish from sight as they kneeled down. Tavis barely managed to keep from gasping in shock, but then his attention was grabbed by the only one left in the room as he moved around the side of the bed. "Tavis Stoneslicer?"  
  
"Ye-yes Sir." He said with a nod.  
  
"You were recently found unconscious and beaten into the ground within the traitors cell. I'd like to know what happened in there."  
  
Tavis gulped. "A human was there."   
  
"A HUMAN!?"  
  
He nodded again. "Yes sir, a human female. She broke into the cell to get the traitor."  
  
"So G'nolga had help escaping." The Leader muttered.  
  
"No...sir." Tavis hesitantly corrected him.  
  
The Leader turned slowly and seemed to glare right through Tavis's soul. "Excuse me? What do you mean, by 'no'?"  
  
Tavis shuddered. "The h-human broke into the cell and had an argument with G'nolga. G'nolga seemed to know the human and told her that there was no way she would go with her, that she had to atone for her crimes and regain her honor..."  
  
The Leader snorted.  
  
"...Then the human pulled this amulet or necklass of some kind out and placed it around G'nolga's neck."  
  
"What did it do?"  
  
"At first nothing, but by this time I had entered the cell and had my crossbow trained on the human and told her to drop her weapons and that she was under arrest. She just laughed and pulled this huge spear off her back and prepared to fight. Then G'nolga started to convulse and I noticed that the amulet thing was glowing, this lasted only a few seconds, but then she stopped and hung from her chains like a limp rag doll. Then she started to move around a bit and she lifted up her head." Tavis shuddered a bit. "Those eyes of hers were empty sir, completely empty as if that cursed magic had drained the life out of her."  
  
"I see and what happened after that?"  
  
"I go me wits back and tried to get the human to come with me and leave the cell, but she played with something on her hand and suddenly started to move so fast that I couldn't keep up with her and she beat me up with that staff in just a few seconds. Then just as I was fading, I think the Human pulled something from her glove, grabbed G'nolga, and they vanished from sight."  
  
The Leader was silent for several seconds, as if waiting for more, but then turned away just as Tavis was going to ask if he needed anymore information. "Twelve!"  
  
Another cloaked member appeared from out of nowhere at the end of the bed and Tavis nearly screamed in shock.  
  
"Sir?"  
  
"Was that what you were able to find out from the others?"  
  
Twelve nodded. "Yes sir, though they mentioned something about the human being able to turn invisible."  
  
The leader turned back to Tavis and growled out. "Why didn't you mention this?"  
  
He paled. "I...I never s-saw her until she was i-in the cell with G'nolga."  
  
"Twelve this debacle has to be cleaned up and that means getting G'nolga back here to stand her trial."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"Assemble the team, we're going to go and get G'nolga." The Leader said, then he turned on Tavis. "You and me are going to go through every step of the incident, second by second until you tell me everything that happened. Understand?"  
  
Tavis whimpered at the feeling of evil wafting off the man even as he noticed the slight smirk that Twelve was giving him. "Y-Yes s-s-sir."  
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
End Notes - The Hidden Hammers will be playing a part in the upcoming battle against Rook and G'nolga as they move towards Seer's Hamlet. Let me know if you liked this chapter or not, I tried to give Ranma more of a spot light in this monster that has grown completely out of control.   
  
^_^;;  
  
The Edge Guard: http://www.monmouth.com/~roxikat/edgeguard.htm  
  
Sheila is Gar's sister. She has a rare werecat birth defect where her human form has her strength and speed instead of her hybrid form. She's an adult in a teenager's hybrid form. She chooses her hybrid form in combat usually because her human form lacks the healing and jagwere dexterity. Also, she's accepted more as 'one of the guys' when she's small, not as a gorgeous damsel to be put on a pedestal to court. Despite her insisted maturity, she uses words like pow and kapowie. Most of her elemental attacks are based around them. She's infatuated with Tirga, but refuses to let him know.  
  
Race: Jagwere  
  
Class: swashbuckler/ fighter  
  
Weapon: Ice Fang, scimitar  
  
Special Ability: The fastest healer in hybrid form.  
  
Gar is second in command of the Northern Edge Guard. A dark and brooding warrior since Brittany Diggers spurned his affections after he tried to defeat her lover Stripe in hand-to-hand combat. Since he was trained by the famous armsmaster, Julia Diggers, the fight was nearly his. Gar refuses to let go for reasons of his own. But Julia taught him first and foremost to have patience without hesitance.   
  
Race: Jagwere  
  
Class: Martial artist/ fighter  
  
Weapon: Thunder Edge, partisan (spear)   
  
Special Ability: During a solar eclipse, Gar can focus his power to perform the Lunar Rave, increasing his strength, speed, and size.  
  
Tirga is a hedonistic, vain womanizer, who relies on his charm to get out of most scrapes. But behind his fun-loving demeanor, Tirga is a cautious, secretive person. Often uses disguises to blend into his surroundings when tracking his quarry.  
  
Race: Were-tiger  
  
Class: Rogue/Tracker/Tactician  
  
Weapon: Fire Claw, morning star mace  
  
Special Ability: His powers of vanity allow him to grow his hair to any length or style to aid in his disguises.  
  
Onoli is the leader of the Northern Edge Guard, and their strongest and wisest member. Raised in bushido schools of thought, Onoli lets little disturb his tranquility. Well-versed in the laws of the Retreat, he makes an eloquent public speaker at the Council.  
  
Race: Were-lion  
  
Class: samurai  
  
Weapons: Seraphim and Necro, swords of Light and Dark soul energy. The Jasper - Rain   
  
Thropan is a mechanical artifact expert as well as a mechanical and magical engineer. He rebuilt and modified the standard issue Edge Guard elemental weapons and gear with his own experimental designs including the device that lets them gate around. With science and technology outlawed on Jade, Thropan toes the line with all his technological experiments using magic for power.  
  
Race: Were-panther  
  
Class: Magical engineer/ martial artist  
  
Weapon: Earth Flail, dragon's claw (bladed nunchaku)   
  
Special Ability: Master of the School of Xiao Pai Long 


	13. Chapter 12

Notes -   
  
http://shi_hanna.tripod.com/  
  
**********  
  
Golden Opportunity  
  
Chapter 12  
  
Cory D. Rose  
  
ertle2@msn.com  
  
(c) 2003  
  
**********  
  
Ashaton's new cloak fluttered in the darkening sky as he walked down the cobblestone street in the northern part of Seer's Hamlet just a few blocks form the Lower Palace. It didn't have the same properties as his old one, such as the cloaking ability and invisibility, but it would work until he could find another magical cloak.   
  
For the last several minutes, he had been wandering around looking for a few undead to take down, but for some reason he was having a problem finding them. He had been fighting them left and right less than an hour before, so he was a little confused. As far as he could tell the area seemed to be deserted.   
  
What had him bothered the most was the dead silence that permeated the air around him as he walked along. His hand kept inching toward the handle of the large sword he had on his back. He moved over to a building and carefully looked in the small alley that was beside it for some kind of ambush, but it was as empty as the last few he had checked.   
  
The lack of action was really beginning to worry him. Then he closed his eyes, listened to silence around him, and was a bit surprised when he actually heard something several streets away. At first, he wasn't sure what he was hearing because it was so faint. He wasn't sure what it was at this distance, but it was something that sounded like trouble.   
  
It was just what he was looking for. Grinning a little, he ran down the street, turned the corner, and started listening for the sounds he'd just heard. It didn't take him long to find the source as he ran, but he could instantly tell that something major was going on even when he was over two blocks away. The closer he got the louder it got and that could only mean something big.   
  
He stopped running when he was about a block from the sounds. From what he could tell, a large gathering of undead was making the noise and he didn't like it one bit. Whenever they started to gather in a large group it meant trouble. So far they had spent most of the day spreading throughout the city in small groups.   
  
That was the only reason the paladins had been able to respond as well as they had in the first place. If there had been anymore undead spreading through the city they would have been overwhelmed in a matter of hours. He looked around, spotted an alley up ahead, and made his way over to it.   
  
He carefully looked around the edge of the building and spotted an armored skeleton at the other end of the alleyway, just beyond the edge of the far end of the alley. It was swinging a torch around its head, yelling as if he was about to throw it, and waving a blood stained sword in the other hand.   
  
Ashaton still wondered how a skeleton could even talk, but they managed it somehow. Insulting you as they fought and trying to kill you at the same time. For a second Ashaton was considered killing the thing from where he was standing, but he pulled back as he spotted several other skeletons suddenly wander over to the one with the torch.   
  
The odds against a quick and easy killing were a little to low for his liking. They all started yelling at each other and patting each other on the back as some of them started to cheer. The sound was enough to make anyone nervous. He suddenly realized that the large gathering must have been on the next street over. A lot closer than he thought they were.   
  
This was unlike anything he had encountered yet and it made him really nervous. He could easily handle ten or so skeletons on his own in a matter of minutes, but this sounded like a lot more than that. Considerably more than he expected to find in one spot.   
  
Now he was starting to wish he still had his invisibility cloak. Losing it in the fire at the Compound had been a grave mistake that just might get him killed. Scowling a little, he looked around and shifted into his werecheetah form when he didn't see anyone. Then he crouched down, and jumped onto the roof without making a sound. At least he could still move silently, even if he did have to change into his newest form.   
  
He would have to investigate this from somewhere the things wouldn't spot him. It was a bit galling, but it wasn't as if he could really do anything else now. He didn't have enough information on the situation to make decent plan of attack. So the instant he landed on the roof he dropped to his belly and carefully made his way across the slanted roof as quietly as he could.   
  
He slowly looked over the edge off the roof to see a small open street full of skeletons. They were everywhere, at least two hundred of them if he was guessing right. All around them the houses and shops were being set on fire as the skeletons tossed their torches through windows. Even as he watched a building started to go up and the skeletons cheered again and started to high five each other.  
  
At the end of the street was an important looking house and it looked like it was untouched by the fire and the skeletons. It was a large two-story building with a wide front yard. Surrounding the house was a sight that was becoming all too familiar.   
  
When the people died, they would rise back up as an undead zombie a few minutes later. He'd seen it happen more than once during the day already. So seeing about fifty newly created zombies, men, women, and children all circling the building sent a chill down his spine.   
  
He wasn't sure what it was, but his werecheetah senses were telling him, by the smell in the air, that there were several people inside the building. Then he had it confirmed as someone suddenly shot a crossbow bolt out an upper story window. Right into the head of a zombie and knocked it off its feet. Ashaton knew that the things had a limited amount intelligence so when they didn't retaliate he was a bit shocked.   
  
If that wasn't bad enough, the skeletons had just set the building next to it on fire by tossing a few torches into the thatched roofing of the older building. Then he noticed something he hadn't been looking for. Standing way off to the side were a couple of paladins and a strange looking zombie of some kind.   
  
Over the years, he'd met several different kinds of undead and this zombie looked a little different than the ones that were surrounding the house. Even from this distance his senses were telling him to stay away from the thing. It was an old man dressed in ill-fitting armor with a large double shot crossbow in its hands as hit knelt on the street next to the paladin.   
  
The thing was hunched over with its head bowed down so that its chin rested on its chest. It appeared to be resting or waiting for something to happen. A shiver of fear went down his back as it lifted its head and looked around, almost as if it knew it was being watched.   
  
He ducked back and made sure the thing couldn't see him peaking over the edge of the building. It must have been a guard of some kind, but the two paladins had Ashaton confused. They should have been killing the skeletons, not standing around watching them burn buildings down.   
  
Being in his werecheetah form, he lifted his head and sniffed the air, but there was too much going on around him to learn anything that way. All he could smell was smoke as the house went up in flames all around him. His tail twitched as he tried to think of something to do to help those people.   
  
Adding more people to the growing undead army was something he had to avoid at all costs. Then he peaked over the edge of the roof again and took a closer look at the two paladins as the light from the fire flickered.  
  
There were only a few reasons he could think of that might explain why they weren't helping the people inside the house. They were traitors, possibly prisoners by magic, or something else even worse than traitors were. Then he glanced at the zombie again and wondered what it was about the thing that kept drawing his attention.   
  
He shook his head and glanced at the building again. The fire on the building next to it was slowly going up in flames as the magical wards failed under the onslaught, but the skeletons kept the fires going. Every time they did this the wards would be weakened just a little more and would flare to warn people to get away. The skeletons just laughed and cheered whenever they flared up.  
  
Reaching over his shoulder he quietly pulled his sword from its sheath and watched for a second as the light from the fires below reflected off the larger ruby set in the hilt. For the first time all day, he wished he had a bit of back up to call upon. There was no way he could take out so many skeletons and zombies on his own, even with his special abilities.   
  
The super speed granted to the werecheetah would allow him to fight a while lot better though. He already had several ideas what he needed to do if he wanted to get to the house. Now all he had to hope was that he could make it before the building was set on fire.   
  
"Damn, I'm running out of time. I'll have to move as quickly as I can and hope the people inside realize I'm a good guy here." He muttered to himself.  
  
He narrowed his eyes and studied the building and all the undead around it and within a few seconds, he devised a general plan of attack that depended heavily on his magic sword and werecheetah speed. The large ruby in the hilt started to glow as it sensed is growing intentions.   
  
He stood up and jumped off the roof before he could talk himself out of going. Landing in the street behind the skeletons, he landed with the skill of a true fighter and jumped at them. His massive sword lit up with a bright red glow as he brought it up and the skeletons began to notice him for the first time. Just down the street, the paladins turned to look in his direction when they noticed the sudden movement.  
  
"RUBY SHINING WAVE!!" He screamed out and slashed through the air with his sword leaving a line of energy in its wake as the power woke up for the first time since the battle at the Compound. A wave of blood red energy flew from the blade, and expanded out in a razor blade thin beam of light shot out with a roar of sound.   
  
It was twenty feet wide by the time it hit the first of the skeletons at the back of the pack. It seemed that slicing them into little bite sized pieces with the attack wasn't their fate though, at least for the first few that were hit with the attack. Instead, they exploded the instant the energy hit them and the force from that took out those skeletons to the sides of each skeleton.   
  
He raced forward just behind the wave, his sword striking out to decimate even more of the skeletons around him as he headed for the house. Taking advantage of the skeletons confusion allows him to use his werecheetah speed to make it all the way to the edge of the house before they even started to react properly.   
  
By that time he had the newly raised zombies and he took a second to slash through several of them on his way through with his werecheetah speed They fell to pieces with a spray of thick blood before they can even react. Then, without slowing down, he shattered the wooden door with his fist and sped into the house.   
  
His increased reflexes instantly knocked several crossbow bolts out of the air before they hit him. He took a second to glance around the room to see what was going on. He can see that the people inside of the house ready to ambush for the skeletons the instant they come through the door.   
  
It was just what he had expected of them so he was glad he prepared himself for the attack before he even came in. There were several over turned chairs and tables being used as cover by various people. All of them were armed with swords and crossbows.   
  
"We have to get you out of here."  
  
"Are you with the Edge Guard?" A scared old man asks as he nervously clutches is crossbow.  
  
"Yeah." He lied and whipped is tail back and forth to remind them that he was a in his werecheetah form. "Call me Raphiel. All of you need to get out of here as fast as possible before the whole place starts on fire. The wards on the building next door are already failing."  
  
The old man stood up just as Ashaton turned and grabbed a nearby couch just as several zombies tried to get through. They fell back as he pushed them back outside with the couch before wedging it in place. He made sure there was no way to get through the door and pretended to ignore a couple of swords suddenly shoved through it from the other side.   
  
His werecheetah hearing could hear the paladins yelling orders to the skeletons and he knew he was in a lot of trouble. The skeletons really weren't working alone. Their leaders controlled their movements and actions completely, so they were quickly overwhelming the city and he wondered what the coming days would bring.  
  
"Those paladins are traitors." He snarled under his breath.  
  
"Naw, they were just killed and brought back as part of the army." The old man said.  
  
"What do you mean? They are even raising the paladins?"  
  
  
  
"Yeah."   
  
"Blast! I hadn't even considered that." Ashaton said. "Let's get out of here. I'll take care of any skeletons we meet when we go out the back door."  
  
"Alright sonny lets get the women and leave this place." The old man said with a toothless grin.  
  
There turned out to be four girls and three old men inside the house. As they gathered by the back door of the house, Ashaton noticed that all of them armed with a crossbow. They were preparing to run for it the instant the door opened.   
  
The air was beginning to get a little smoky by the time all of them were gathered in one place. He hoped the house wasn't on fire yet, otherwise there was going to be even more problems to deal with. His sword was still out, the large ruby in the hilt glowing brightly to warn him that there was danger on the other side of the door.   
  
The group was eyeing him a bit nervously as he opened the door a tiny bit and tried to see what was on the other side. "Are all of you ready?"  
  
"Let's just get the hell out of here and head for the closest safe area."  
  
Ashaton nodded. "Get ready for a long run, cause the closest place is a ways off."  
  
"We'll go as far as we need to." One of the girls said and the others nodded.  
  
"Then let's go." Ashaton said.  
  
Stepping up to the door, he threw it open and looked out into the back yard. As he had expected, several skeletons were there waiting for them, and more started to stream in from the sides of the house. On their heels came the dozens of zombies.  
  
He ran out the door and brought his glowing sword up again. "RUBY SHINING WAVE!"  
  
Two dozen skeletons exploded into shrapnel as he completed the move and turned to confront the next group of undead heading for them. The people behind him seemed suitably impressed as they exited the house and fired several crossbow bolts into the heads of their formers neighbors and friends. "Where to sonny?"  
  
"There!" Ashaton pointed towards the fence. "Were going that way!"  
  
The old man nodded and looked over at one of the other old men in the group. Ashaton noticed for the first time that he was dressed in a black mage suit hidden underneath a thick cloak and hood. He had a long white beard that went all the way down his to his stomach and curled at the end.   
  
"Albus take the fence out, you're our secret weapon." He old man said with a hacking laugh.  
  
"Alright...FIREBALL!!" Albus said as an aura flared around him and he blew a large portion of the fence away in a large explosion that managed to take out more of the skeletons.  
  
Ashaton used his magical attack to take out several more zombies and a couple of skeletons before they could get close. The girls used their crossbows to take out a few more zombies, but the ones that they had shot earlier were stating to get back on their feet.   
  
"All of you run for it." Ashaton yelled at the group. "We have to fight our way out!"  
  
They ran for the hole and Ashaton watched as the skeletons started to pour into the back yard again. He had known it was only a matter of time before the rest of them were sent to stop them from getting away, so he charged up is attack as he turned to face them.   
  
"RUBY…" Right as a wave of force slammed into him from the side and sent him tumbling across the yard. He came up almost instantly, but in that short period, that several skeletons had managed to get close enough to him that they could attack. So he brought his sword around to shatter three skeletons in one large swipe of the blade before he had even had time to think about it.   
  
They converge on him in an instant, quickly taking the place of the fallen skeletons and screaming in rage. The jewel on the hilt of his sword flared to life and he launched his attack before they could get any closer.   
  
"RUBY FLARE!"  
  
More skeletons exploded as his less powerful attack slammed into them and he tried to buy as much time as he could for the small group to get away as safely as possible. Then he saw a flash of red cloth and looked to the side right as one of the paladins walked into the back yard, looked at him, and closed in for an attack.   
  
It didn't seem to hesitate as it pulled its long sword and tried to decapitate him in one smooth motion. Reacting on instinct Ashaton parried the soldier's sword just as it passed over his head. Their blades slammed together with a loud crashing noise. Ashaton was surprised when he was nearly knocked off his feet just by blocking the blow.  
  
"Traitor!"  
  
"Time to die werecheetah." The paladin said as his blade flashed around and continued to attack relentlessly. "You are not good enough to stand up to my skills."  
  
"You aren't good enough to beat me!" Ashaton yelled as they attacked each other.  
  
A whirlwind of steel flashed around them as their blades slammed into each other dozens of times as they tried to kill each other. The sharp retorts of steel hitting steel filled the back yard for several seconds, but then Ashaton made a mistake.   
  
He fell into a pattern and the paladin took advantage of this to alter his attack at the last second by reversing his blade and sliced right into Ashaton's side.   
  
"Pathetic."   
  
He screamed and staggered back. "Damn it!"  
  
"For a werecheetah you aren't very good at fighting are you?" The paladin mocked him. Then he sheathed his blade and held up his gauntlet, making a fist, and it started to glow. "Time to die."  
  
Ashaton snarled as he forced himself to ignore the pain in his side. "Not yet!"  
  
"FORCE BALL!"  
  
Moving as quickly as he could, he dived out of the way and felt the magical burst of energy miss him by only a few inches. It nearly severed his tail from his body as it flew by him. The pain rose to new levels as the attack forced him to move before his body could regenerate.   
  
He brought his sword around the instant he was back on his feet and met the paladin's blade again. This time the blow rattled the while blade and it was almost knocked from his hand and stumbled back several feet from the force of the blow.   
  
"Paladins have a lot of advantages and now that were dead we have even more." His enemy said with a hint of humor in his voice.  
  
"Where's your partner?" Ashaton asked to distract him and gain a few minutes to regenerate.  
  
"He took the rest of the skeletons after the old men."  
  
"They can defend themselves you know." Ashaton said.  
  
"Only for so long."   
  
Screaming in rage, Ashaton swung his sword around and it flared with red light from the ruby, even brighter than before. "CHAOS CONTROL!"  
  
"SHIELD!" The paladin yelled.  
  
The blade swung around Ashaton brought it up and pointed the tip at the paladin and a multi colored beam of energy lanced out and slammed into the paladin's shield. For several seconds the two of them stood there, one using a shield of magic to block and the other firing a beam of energy and they couldn't break each other.  
  
Then Ashaton snarled and he increased the power of the move, forcing the beam through the shield with one final push. He watched as the paladin seemed to explode in slow motion, with flaming pieces of armor that rained down around the back yard of the house.   
  
It was at that moment that the house wards finally gave out and burst into a full force blaze filling the darkening sky with fire. He turned and casually swatted a few more of the nearby skeletons out of existence. If he wanted to help those people, he would have to move fast since he didn't watch which direction they had gone when they left.  
  
He ran out the hole in the fence and looked around for a sign that would indicate which direction the group had gone. Just down the street he spotted several piles of skeleton bones scattered about. Then a zombie pinned to one of the buildings with a crossbow bolt through its head.   
  
It was struggling to try to pull it out so it could continue with the hunt. He had to find that group and help them out before that other paladin got to them. They were a lot more dangerous than he'd thought they were if that fight was any indication what the other one could do. His side was also starting to regenerate now that he wasn't moving around defending his life.   
  
His wound was still a little sore, but he figured he would be back in fighting shape before he reached the next battle. He couldn't even hear a fight so he knew they weren't too close. He ran down the street, his sword out and leading the way as he tried to find them. Considering the number of skeletons he'd seen, they weren't going to be too hard to find   
  
All he had to do was follow the shattered remains of the skeletons and zombies that littered the road. For a group of old men a few girls they sure knew how to take these things down. It was the only reason he knew they hadn't been defeated yet. The things were everywhere he ran and within a few minutes, he could hear the sounds of a battle in the distance. He homed in on it and hoped everyone was fine as he rounded a corner.  
  
The men were in the middle of an open lot surrounded by a few dozen skeletons while the paladin and several of the zombies were watching from the sidelines. He watched as Albus, who was tired and sweaty, flared up and fired off several magic missile attacks. But, he wasn't as strong as he had been and the skeletons managed to deflect the magic attack with their shields.   
  
Behind the old men the girls were also nearly back to back as they held their crossbows up and tried to find a target to fire at. He could see that they were all scared out of their minds and hadn't noticed him yet. Then Albus tried to fire off another magical attack and failed as he fell to his knees. He started holding his chest and gasping for air a few seconds later.  
  
"Damn, this just keeps getting worse and worse." He muttered.  
  
"You're a werecheetah?!"   
  
He spun around and attacked, but stopped half a second later as the sword got knocked out of his hand, spun up into the air, and was caught in Julia Digger's hand. She smiled at him and handed the sword back. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to startle you."  
  
"That's okay. I wasn't expecting anyone to be around to help me." Ashaton said.  
  
"Things are getting worse and worse." Julia said as she looked him up and down. Other than that she didn't say anything about his new form.  
  
"I can use all the help I can get."  
  
"Well my husband should be arriving any second, so this shouldn't last to much longer." Julia said and pointed towards the lot. "There he is."  
  
Ashaton turned and saw that Theodore Diggers had just appeared beside old Albus and was helping him stand up. Then the Archmage turned and glared at the undead skeletons and zombies around him, raised his hand in the air, and snapped his fingers. One by one, every one of them exploded from the inside out and died a rather gruesome death.   
  
"Theo's showing off again." Julia said.  
  
"What the hell was that?"   
  
"It's a multi person attack spell. I've seen him use it on up to twenty goblins at once. We need to go and help him though he can only cast it a few times. He usually knows better than to show off." Julia said and started jogging towards the fight.  
  
There were still quite a few of the skeletons and zombies left even after Theo took a good third of them out with his spell. So Ashaton and Julia didn't waste any time as they ran forward and added into the remaining mob of undead monsters. Within seconds the two of them had taken out a dozen skeletons.   
  
Then Ashaton spotted the undead paladin and that strange zombie that gave him the creeps. Controlling his apprehension, he started to head for the two in order to take them down permanently. Theo, a somewhat refreshed Albus, and Julia took the initiative and attacked.   
  
"RUBY FLARE!"   
  
Another half dozen skeletons die as his attack hits them and it leaves Ashaton standing just a few feet from his goal. The paladin turned and looked at him as he walked forward and ignored the actions around him as the rest of the undead are whittled down.   
  
"I'm surprised you managed to survive, but a werecats do have the ability to regenerate, so I'm not to broken up over it." The Paladin said.  
  
"You're going to die next." Ashaton said and took up his attack stance.  
  
"I highly doubt that." The Paladin said. "Jeb, are you interested in fighting him?"  
  
The old man zombie turned and glanced at Ashaton with a pair of milky white eyes. Ashaton shivered a bit as the eyes seemed to bore into his soul, but then the thing shook its head. "No challenge."  
  
"Ah well, I figured I'd give you a chance to do something."  
  
"My prey is already here, let them wear themselves down a bit first." Jeb said and turned away from them.   
  
"Well it looks like it's just you and me now werecat. How would you like to die? With your skin still intact? Or would stripping it from your body in small pieces work better?"  
  
"Your partner didn't do to well against me, so don't get to over confident." Ashaton lied.  
  
In one quick motion the paladin grabbed the hilt of his sword and ran at Ashaton. He brought his sword down low and tried to do a cut right up between his legs, but Ashaton blocked it with the flat of his massive sword and palm punched him in the chest to knock him back a few feet.   
  
Then the paladin took a step back and held up his sword in a ready position. "Not bad, you at least know how to use that thing."  
  
"I expected more from you."   
  
"Oh there's more where that came from, I haven't even begun to fight yet. We sent the other paladin after you because he was such a pathetic fighter compared to the rest of us."  
  
Ashaton shot forward, attacked with a thrust, and cut attack, but the paladin simply hopped back and blocked him effortlessly. "Pathetic!"  
  
Then he shot forward at an incredible speed, far faster than anyone wearing full body armor should have been able to move. The air around Ashaton lit up with pain as the paladin seemed to cut him several hundred times in the blink of eye.   
  
Stumbling back, Ashaton felt the edge of the paladin's sword resting against his neck. "Wha?"  
  
"Paladin's come with quite an arsenal of magical attacks, it's one of the reasons we are so dangerous to our enemies. You, I'm afraid, just don't stand up to most of our enemies. You're really kind of pathetic and weak, but it's been fun playing with you so I'm to disappointed. Just bored."  
  
"You are so dead." Ashaton growled.  
  
The sword was pressed against his neck a little tighter and the paladin just seemed to be enjoying himself too much. "Any last words?"  
  
"How about…pay attention?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
A fireball suddenly slammed into the paladin from the side and sent him flying into the wall of a nearby building. Most of the wall developed a crack pattern from the impact and the paladin slowly slid to the ground and landed on its feet.   
  
Looking up, Ashaton saw that Dr. Diggers had helped him out as he and his wife fought the rest of the undead. Most of them were gone by now as they cleaned up the last dozen or so. He stood up and looked at his arms and chest to see that his wounds were healing, but his new cloak was a total loss. Most of it was in shreds at his feet, so he ripped it off and tossed it away.   
  
"How many of these things am I going to go through in one day?" He muttered to himself.   
  
"He's using a haste spell!" Dr. Diggers yelled as he detonated another zombie.  
  
Cursing himself for not seeing it, Ashaton did a couple of stretches and made sure his body was working right. For some reason the arrogant paladin hadn't killed him in that flurry of attacks, and it was the only reason he wasn't dead. He would have to repay the favor.   
  
"I'm still not used to his werecheetah form." He muttered as he looked over at the paladin. It looked a little confused as it finally managed to shake off the attack and he realized that there might have been more in that fireball than just fire.  
  
"CHAOS CONTROL!" Ashaton screamed and fired off his attack again.  
  
The paladin held up his gauntleted hand and formed a shield, just like the last paladin. As the blast bounced off the shield, Ashaton sighed and cursed under his breath. These things were a lot stronger than they looked.   
  
"Looks like I'll have to use plan 'B' after all." He spun his sword and got into a special stance.   
  
"Bring it on wimp."   
  
Two glowing red eyes flared behind the paladin's helmet as his hand started to glow. It suddenly flared and multiple burst of fire erupted from the gauntlet as several fireballs fired out at Ashaton. The werecheetah shifted and weaved his way forward through the barrage with a snarl. He was getting tired of fighting these things.   
  
Then the paladin was suddenly in front of him swinging his sword downward in a lethal attack. Cursing his carelessness, Ashaton pulled back and tried to dodge and block the swift attack with his large blade, but the paladin was faster. As their blades met Ashaton knew his blade was at the wrong angle.   
  
With a shower of sparks, the paladin's sword skidded down Ashaton's blade and he ground the tip of his blade through the werecheetah's shoulder. Dropping to his knee in pain, Ashaton realized three things, the paladin's blade was making the pain worse, there was an open palm in front of his face, and that he'd just been defeated.   
  
"Time to die flesh bag." The paladin snarled as his gauntlet flared with fire.   
  
Ashaton looked at the paladin, saw something and just smiled evilly. "I really doubt that."  
  
Julia cut the paladin's arm off as she landed, reversed her sword, and cut him in half in two quick motions. Then she kicked him away and turned to look down at Ashaton in irritation. "I thought you were better than this?"  
  
"Normally I am." He grunted. "The thing caught by surprise with that cheap shot."  
  
"Use your abilities. You are a werecheetah, aren't you?" She snapped.   
  
"Don't push me woman." He said as he stood up and examined his shoulder.   
  
"I am not your babysitter, so I may not be able to save you next time." Julia growled, turned, and slashed several of the oncoming zombies into smaller pieces.  
  
Gritting his teeth, Ashaton decided not to push his luck. He knew how good Julia Diggers was and that she had a bit of a temper when she got going in the middle of a fight. "I'm sorry, I won't make the same mistake twice."  
  
The red head just nodded and headed for the next group of undead, but a sudden sound in the distance caught their attention. At the same time a ring of explosive fire surged forth from around Theo and incinerated several skeletons and zombies. They could see that his face was a bit tired form casting so many spells in such a short period of time.  
  
"Theo, what is that noise?" Julia called.   
  
Ashaton listened for a second realized that there was an echoing sound bouncing off the houses and making the noise more than it was. He turned to Julia. "It's marching feet."  
  
"Us?"  
  
"I highly doubt it." Theo said as he recognized the sound a few seconds later.   
  
Julia pointed her sword at Jeb. "He's the only one left, let's take care of him before the other s get here."  
  
Forming a ball of fire between his hands, Dr. Diggers just nodded and clenched his teeth.  
  
Jeb, who was kneeling on the ground, slowly stood up and assumed a slightly stooped over stance. His head cocked to the side as if he was listening to something. Then he glanced over at Dr. Diggers. "I have orders to make sure you are brought back to the palace."  
  
"We aren't going anywhere zombie." Julia snarled.   
  
"Indeed, you will find that we are a lot stronger than you think."  
  
"You are weak." Jeb stated. "You have limits, weaknesses, there is no way you can stand against all of us!"   
  
Rank after rank of skeletons and zombies started to march out from between some buildings behind Jeb. Ashaton groaned as he lost count of the number of undead heading their way. It didn't help that over two thirds of them appeared to be the recently dead citizens of Seer's Hamlet. He could even see several figures in red walking along beside the mounted Undead Knights.   
  
Dr. Diggers growled and fired his fireball right at Jeb, who he could tell was the biggest threat. As it crossed the distance between them, Jeb gestured with his hand and the remains of the paladin near Ashaton lifted up off the ground and flew right into the fireball.   
  
It exploded with a larger than normal explosion that sent a wave of air in all directions. The fire from the explosion dissipated quickly and didn't cause any damage at all. Jeb grinned and loaded his multi shot cross bow. "This should be easy enough."  
  
"Theo, what is he?!" Julia yelled as she ran over to her husband and kept an eye on the expanding wall of undead behind Jeb. Ashaton used his speed to run over to the couple and stand on the other side of Dr. Diggers.  
  
"I'm not sure, but he was raised differently than a normal zombie, I can tell that just by looking at him."  
  
"Can you read his aura? Like you did with your father?" Julia asked.  
  
Theo frowned and concentrated on Jeb for a few seconds as they watched. "He's got a massive aura of power around him, almost demonic."  
  
"We can't fight him and all these others at the same time." Ashaton muttered. There had to be close to three hundred undead crowding in around Jeb, the Undead Knights, and the new paladin's were taking up their places on either side of the zombie.  
  
The Undead Knights pulled their swords out and held them aloft for a second and all the skeletons quieted down, though a few sniggered evilly. Then the swords dropped and pointed at Dr. Diggers and the undead mob rushed forward with a howl.   
  
Jeb watched as his targets went back to back as the skeletons surrounded them. "Don't interfere in my fight!" He snarled at the closest Knight.  
  
The thing turned and glared at Jeb in silence for a second and Jeb backed down and nodded. "All right, but I don't like it."  
  
The zombie turned back to them and snarled. "The Leader wants to talk to the Mage! Tie them up and bring them along!"  
  
As the skeletons closed in Theo made a gesture that told Julia to let them get captured, but Ashaton didn't see it. Ashaton suddenly shot forward and his sword started to glow.   
  
"RUBY SHINING WAVE!"  
  
The blast quickly blew a hole through the ranks of undead and Ashaton ran for it and glanced over his shoulder to see how far behind the Diggers were. Then he realized that they hadn't even moved and were already captured by the skeletons. He slid to a stop for a second and considered going back for them, but the look Dr. Diggers sent him squelched that idea.  
  
Nodding, he turned and ran down a nearby street as fast as he could, quickly breaking the sound barrier and vanishing into the city less than a second later. Back at the clearing Jeb nodded as the Diggers were quickly tied together. Then herded out of the lot and into the streets at sword point as the skeletons fell into step around them.   
  
**********  
  
Five dark and blurry forms moved among the bushes at the base of the cliff where Rook's Tower rose into the sky. The light and shadows seemed to play about their bodies, making it impossible to keep track of them as they blended in with scenery all around them.   
  
Moving with the quick and silent step of professionals, they knelt down in the lengthening shadows next to a large rock and all but vanished from sight. The one in the lead edged back into the shadows a little more and pulled a hood off his face and the air about his body seemed to waver for a second before his dwarven features stood out.   
  
  
  
He wore a simple leather outfit, decorated with studs and spikes, all of it of the deepest black. Upon his head was a small black circlet being used to keep the hair out of his eyes while he worked. Reaching into his cloak he brought out a small black object that when sat on the ground looked like a very tiny upside down tent.   
  
Even when you knelt close the little tent it was almost impossible to see the little pearl inside it. Everything was black except the faint pulse coming off it. He places his hands on either side of the device, closes his eyes, and concentrates for a second as the men about him tense, prepared for anything that might happen. They did not like working with magic, but they would when it was the fastest way to get the job done. Dwarves did like efficiency, no matter what he source was.  
  
Arrayed in a half circle around the first dwarf, they were kneeling on one knee, and held oddly shaped crossbows shouldered and ready for action. Currently, they were pointed down at the ground, they scanned the darkening land all around them for any signs of attack.   
  
After several seconds, the first dwarf carefully lowered his hands and opened his eyes. Taking several deep breaths, he calmed down and picked up his device. Folded it back up, and placed it with in the folds of his cloak before raising his fist in the air.  
  
Another dozen barely seen dwarves swarmed out of the shadows around them and took up a defensive position around the first group. They knelt on the ground with their weapons shouldered, but they were facing in a different directions.   
  
A large dwarf held up his and made several gestures in quick succession so that the magic using dwarf could see. They had adopted a simple sign language for their missions, so that they could make as little noise as possible. The mage quickly made a series of gestures as well.   
  
'Well?' The second one signed.  
  
'The traitor isn't here anymore, leader.'  
  
'Then where is she? Gondola must be brought to justice.'  
  
'The tracker says she is about a twenty leagues from here.'  
  
'That would mean that she is in Seer's Hamlet wouldn't it?'  
  
'Yes Leader.'  
  
'What about the other problem?'  
  
'All we have been able to tell is that a very large army came through here about twelve hours ago. They seem to have destroyed everything in their path so far. The burned down farms and the lack of bodies suggests that all those that were not killed are now apart of the army.'  
  
'They were heading towards Seer's Hamlet as well?'  
  
'Yes Leader. It is possible that the traitor is helping them in some way'  
  
'She hasn't given up all her honor yet, she would never help FILTH like this.'  
  
The first dwarf just shrugged. 'My readings on her location seem to indicate that she is apart of this in some way. Other wise how would she have gotten all this way in such a short amount of time? Why would she even be in Seer's Hamlet after that fiasco at the Tournament of Arms?'  
  
'I don't like this at all. It must have something to do with that human female that kidnapped her right out of the dungeon.'  
  
'Perhaps more than teleport magic was involved?'  
  
The second one nodded. 'You are correct Warmage.' He waved three fingers at his men and they all stood. 'I hope we can get there in time. This mystery needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. Let's go! To Seer's Hamlet, we need to hurry!'  
  
The Warmage brought his hood back up and he vanished from sight, blending in just as he had before they stopped to get a directional with the beacon they were using to track G'nolga. He motioned for the group to follow him and started to sprint across the field moving with the speed that only a haste spell could achieve.   
  
Behind him, one at a time, each of the cloaked dwarves followed in a blur of motion. As the last one left the safety of the shadowed stone, three more cloaked dwarves moved out of the underbrush and swept along the rear of the squad, making sure that there were no signs left that they had ever been there in the first place.  
  
**********  
  
"This isn't good." Sheila said as they watched as Julia and Dr. Diggers were escorted to the palace within a large group of undead. They had arrived on the scene just at the tail end of the fight, just as the reinforcements showed up to capture Dr. Diggers and Julia.  
  
"We have to help them." Ranma said as he paced back and forth.  
  
"I know, but with that many undead in one area I'm positive we wouldn't be able to get in, save them, and get out again."   
  
"Then what can we do?" The Saotome School had several sayings that Ranma liked to live up to, even if his old man was such a pain in the butt One of them was to make sure you would win if you went into battle, no matter what. That many undead would have been a challenge even for him because they all worked together, with one though on their minds.  
  
"We need to find the others and attack as a group."  
  
"We've been looking for some time and still haven't found them." Ranma pointed out. "There has to be a better way to find them than to wander around this town at random."  
  
"What would you do then?" She asked.  
  
"Take to the roofs, no one ever looks up at the top of buildings for some reason." Ranma said.  
  
"There are magical wards on the roofs of most buildings to prevent thieves from breaking in that way." Sheila said.  
  
Ranma continued to pace, desperately looking for a way to get the Diggers out of the middle of that army of undead or to find the rest of the Edge Guard.  
  
"Seer's hamlet is quite big, so they could also be any number of places by now."   
  
"We can't get to the Upper Palace because the undead have taken over the base palace, and we can't save those two because they are far too many undead around them." Ranma muttered. "This is getting irritating Let's just blast the hell out of those things. You know how powerful my fireball is when I take a few seconds to build up the power."  
  
"No Ranma, it's just the two of us at the moment, we have to find the others." Sheila insisted.  
  
"What about the guy we saw leaving at the very end there? Can we track him down and get him to help?"  
  
Sheila considered it and nodded. "I think we can, he was moving pretty fast though, so I'm not sure where he is. Could you tell who he was at this distance?"  
  
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, that guy from the clinic a little while ago. The one that was resting in the waiting room."  
  
"How could you tell?"  
  
"The way he moved and that massive sword of his. He's the only guy in this city that I've seen with a sword like that, so it can't be used by that many people."  
  
"He did have a tail." Sheila pointed out. "The guy in the clinic didn't have one."  
  
"He's a werecat or something, like you, he was in his human form at the time." Ranma said with a shrug.  
  
"Maybe, but I'm not sure we can fully trust him and I know we can trust the other members of the Edge Guard."  
  
"My pop used to say that when you needed to find someone in an emergency, you needed to look in the one place you knew they would be. Where would the others go in a situation like this?" Ranma asked, though he did realize that most of his father's wisdom was somewhat spotty at best.  
  
Shelia thought about it for a second. "I think they would either be running around helping people around the city, or focus on the main threat. That would mean going to the palace."  
  
"Then let's go to the palace, but take look around on our way there so that we might see one of the others."  
  
B looked up at Ranma and was starting to wonder who the guy in the Ranma suit was and what had happened to the buffoon that had been wandering around with them all day.  
  
**********  
  
Several thousand undead stood around the base palace now, in large groups of fifty to a hundred each, over half of the army was made up of the recently risen citizens of Seer's Hamlet as well. Giving them all weapons hadn't been in the plans, so G'nolga had been forced to let them arm themselves in anyway they could. Therefore, a platoon of zombie housewives carrying frying pans and wearing tattered and revealing dresses presented a rather odd sight to anyone that witnessed it.  
  
There were many other groups that caught Dr. Digger's eye as they were marched down the road to the base palace. For the most part the skeletons weren't being to rough with them as they walked. The occasional push here and there just to let them know who was boss, but that was about it.   
  
The Undead Knights and their mounts had moved to the front of the column and forced everything out of their way. Occasionally one of them would come across a zombie or skeleton that was too stupid to move and the horses promptly plowed them under.   
  
It wasn't the most well organized undead army ever seen, but Dr. Diggers and Julia had to admire just how fast they got things done. They were still trying to figure out how certain things got accomplished so fast. He had also noticed that the undead didn't quite understand what a magic user was.   
  
They hadn't taken any precautions to make sure he didn't suddenly start casting spells and it had him worried. If they were that stupid, they would never have made it as far as they were now, even with the surprise attack in the early morning. The two of them very carefully watched everything going on around them as they neared their location.   
  
Dr. Diggers was not in the best of moods and Julia could tell just by looking at him. The set of his jaw, the narrowed eyes, the slightly glowing eyes, and the way his mage suit seemed to be absorbing light and turning his skin just the slightest shade darker. He was an Archmage and holding himself back like this just so he could get closer to a magical item was galling.   
  
When this was over something like this would never be able happen again, he would make sure of that. They had secured themselves just a little to well. He had no way to get up to the Upper Palace high in the branches of the tree above them. Blowing away most of the city with one spell was easy, but simply teleporting up to there was impossible while the anti-teleport spells were in effect.  
  
"It seemed like such a good idea at the time too." He grumbled under his breath and the skeleton behind him shoved him forward.  
  
"Move it scum."  
  
Julia barely managed to keep herself from tearing into the things around her. She did not like to play possum it irritated the hell out of her. One of the skeletons had even take the sword her daughter had made for her a few months before for the Tournament of Arms.   
  
She hoped she got it back when this was over, that sword meant more to her than just a useful weapon. "Theo, I hope this idea of yours works."  
  
"It will."  
  
"Quiet!" The skeleton barked at them.  
  
A few seconds late they started down the entrance path to the palace and could see that the undead had already started to make themselves at home Kneeling on either side of the gate were a pair of Combat Wraiths, just waiting for the order to kill someone. There wasn't a mage on the continent that was stupid enough to create them, yet there they were.   
  
The doors opened as they approached and four paladins marched out and stood on either side of the doors. G'nolga walked out a few seconds later and saw that her guests had finally arrived. "Ah good, it's about time you two showed up."  
  
"G'nolga…" Julia stared to say, but the skeleton behind her used the hilt of its sword to hit her in the back of the neck. She was more shocked than anything else, so she dropped to one knee and glared up at the thing.  
  
The dwarf ignored Julia as she walked over to Dr. Diggers and stared at him for several seconds. "I sent the skeletons out to bring you in so I could torture some information out of you that I would need."  
  
Dr. Diggers kept his calm as he watched G'nolga and saw that her eyes were somewhat vacant. "And then what?"  
  
Her baldhead tilted to the side and she started at him. "Then a little while ago this nice old wererat stopped by and we made a trade, a spell that would give me what I wanted and all I had to do was leave his realm alone."  
  
He had a feeling he knew where this was going and he didn't like it.   
  
"It was an easy deal to make, really, we had no plans to go there in the first place, so it made things even easier. The only thing we had to worry about was the time it took to set up the spell around the stone."  
  
"That stone was designed to be resistant to tampering." Theo told her.  
  
"Indeed, but the nice wererat told us that his spell was designed to work around that little flaw, after all, he did have a hand in its creation all those years ago." G'nolga said mildly, the necklace that Rook had placed over her head gleamed in the last rays of the setting sun as she stood there.  
  
"Gothwrain." Theo growled.  
  
"The old wererat wanted me to get rid of you as well and since you and your wife are now useless to me, I have no problems getting rid of you. An Archmage will make a good addition to my army." G'nolga said with a grin as she turned away and sauntered over to Julia. "You on the other hand…"   
  
"G'nolga, snap out of this possession, you are stronger than this." Julia said.  
  
G'nolga ignored them as she turned and started to walk back into the palace. She motioned for ten newly risen paladins to come forward. "All of you, prove your loyalty to the Lord, kill them."  
  
That was all Theo needed to hear and his face seemed to turn to stone as it lost all life and the shadows suddenly started to flow around his body. In the blink of an eye he was gone and in his place was a man made of shadow and fire. The skeleton that was holding him, and every other one within twenty feet vanished in a wave of fire as it spread from his body.   
  
"You don't think you can get away that easily do you G'nolga?" Theo asked, as he turned his flaming skull to look at the woman.   
  
Off to the side Julia also took a second during the confusion to free herself and take the sword from the skeleton that had hit her. It didn't survive a quick slash maneuver and clattered to the ground with a curse. Then she turned and made her way over to Theo as he did his all powerful Archmage impression, throwing up a quick magical wall around them so that the army behind them couldn't suddenly surge forward and overwhelm them.  
  
It also left the way clear for them to head into the building. The paladin's didn't seem to impressed with Theo's display, but they arrayed themselves in front of the doors to the palace and raised their gauntleted hands as G'nolga headed deeper into the palace. She called back to them just before she vanished through a door. "Hold them for a few minutes, the spell should be done by then."  
  
"Theo, which ones do you want?" Julia asked mildly.  
  
"The wererats have involved themselves in this, we don't have time to play around." He growled.   
  
"Then speed things up, you haven't done much since we headed here anyway."  
  
His head turned to look at the paladins as they prepared to fire and his body lit up with a massive aura. "Die." He said and the word, backed by his power was all it took to set off the spell he'd been building for several seconds.   
  
With a bright flash of light, the front area of the palace went up in a massive explosion. The wind and flying debris flew a hundred feet into the air and the underneath them shook and heaved with the force of the blast. Then two forms emerged from the smoke, with Theo's eyes glowing evilly as he stalked through the rather large hold that now made up the front of the palace.  
  
"Nicely done, you don't let lose enough." Julia said as she walked along beside him.  
  
"True, now let's stop G'nolga. I should have just taken her down when we first saw her."  
  
"No, she's mine. I'll stop her, you need to get to the room where the stone is being held and stop the others from completing the spell."  
  
"This ends now." Theo said as he looked at another group of paladins and they ceased to exist, along with a large section of the hallway, as he made a quick gesture at them.  
  
**********   
  
When they reached the outer edges of where Seer's Hamlet should have been, they were met with quite a surprise. The city existed within a sub space pocket, it was famous for it in fact. So as the dwarves came to a stop about half a mile from the entrance to the city, stopped, and knelt down in the grass.   
  
The sight of several dozen zombies standing guard in front of the entrance wasn't as surprising as seeing the gate wide open and flickering. The Warmage watched the zombies for several minutes. Next to him, the Commander motioned for him to hurry it up a bit.   
  
'We need to get through the gate there.' The Warmage signed.  
  
'Isn't there another way in?"  
  
'Not unless we can teleport right inside the city. We tried that before we left and it didn't work.'  
  
'Then we need to destroy the zombies and move on.' The Commander said.  
  
'Yes, but we have to be quick, these are only the tip of the rock, there will be lots more inside if the number of tracks we encountered on the way here is any indication of the army's size.'  
  
The Commander turned around to see his men and held up his hand, made a complicated gesture, and watched as everyone followed the order he had just given them. With just a gesture, he could implement any number of plans. All around him, the cloaked dwarves readied their crossbows with a number two crossbow bolt. They carried enough bolts that they almost never ran out, and if one of them did, it was because of poor shooting.   
  
'Is 'she' still going to be contacted?'   
  
Nodding, the Commander lifted his arm into the air, turned to look at the zombies, and chose his target. Dropping his hand, he grabbed his crossbow to his shoulder and fired. All around nearly two dozen bolts flew out of the grass field around the gate at the zombies.  
  
Less than a second later, before the first volley had even reached its target, he had his second bolt loaded aimed. Then the enemy started to explode into little chunks of meat as the blessed crossbow bolts did their work. He fired at his second target just a second behind the rest of the team, but it didn't matter.   
  
Zombies couldn't react well to surprise attacks, so within thirty seconds, nearly fifty zombies ceased to exist. The only thing left was several piles of burning ash that had once been a zombie. The fire was the second part of the blessing, destroying everything that was evil by purging it with fire.   
  
'Let's go!' He motioned and darted out of the grass and headed for the gate. They edged up the magical door as it flickered in and out of sight, and peaked inside. The Zombies appeared to have ripped a large hole in the sub space pocket that housed the city and marched the army right through.   
  
'Commander, if this gateway is damaged, the other three probably are as well. I'm surprised the city is even visible right now.'  
  
'We will worry about that later. Get inside and make sure it's safe for us to cross here.'  
  
Gesturing for one of the dwarves to follow him, the Warmage peaked around the corner and quickly entered the doorway. The walkway that led into the city was intact, but there were several skeletons at the far end waiting for anyone to try and cross. He quickly counted twenty of them and five zombies, far more than he could take alone.  
  
He motioned for more dwarves to follow him in and held up his hand to indicate that he wanted them to load the quick shot bolts. It required a quick, but silent, modification to the crossbows. With it they could quickly fire multiple shots at moving targets without having to worry about reloading. The only problem with the quick shot was that the bolts didn't have as much force behind them as they normally did.   
  
He made sure the ten bolt clip was in place, and glanced over at the others just as they finished loading as well. The Commander motioned for him to hurry it up and took a second to place a number three bolt in his crossbow, as back up. One everyone was ready, the Warmage bowed his head for a second and said a few words of magic.  
  
The four dwarves around him suddenly appeared to be look like the walls around them. Then he stepped out onto the bridge and knelt down before the skeletons could get a good look at him. The others quickly followed suit, knelt down, and they all raised their crossbows.   
  
"Now." He said aloud and ran forward in a blur of movement that caught the skeletons by surprise.  
  
They quickly fired the crossbows, mowing the weak skeletons down with a 'clickity, click, thock' sound. I filled the air for fifteen seconds before the last skeleton went down. Then two of the dwarves let the crossbows dangle from their shoulder straps as they grabbed their battle axes and quickly turned the zombies into quivering chunks of meat.   
  
A quick search for more skeletons or zombies didn't turn anything up, so the rest of the team came across and they passed through another gate. There was a spell on the entrance that usually made anyone using it drop a few coppers to enter the city. Whatever had been done to get around the entrance made that spell ignore them as well.  
  
'We're in sir.' The Warmage said as he let his spell fade the rest of the men fanned out around them, looking down the empty streets. They were in the main square, but there wasn't a soul in sight.   
  
'Where is everybody?'  
  
'Unknown sir, I'm not sensing any life signs anywhere nearby either.'  
  
'We need to get G'nolga, now, what does the tracker say?'  
  
One of the dwarves made a gesture and pointed to the roof of a nearby house. The Commander glanced over that way and raised his crossbow as he saw some movement. "Are you sensing anything?"  
  
'Yes, but it's faint, as if he's trying to hide is aura.'   
  
"Then he isn't dead, perhaps one of the citizens then?" He whispered.  
  
They saw a head peak over the edge of the roof, look down at them, and appeared to make a decision. The Dwarves kept their cool as he jumped off the top of the building and landed in a crouch, allowing them to see his fur and tail.   
  
"Dwarves?"  
  
"I don't recognize you as one of the Edge Guard." The Commander said, aiming his crossbow at him.  
  
"I'm Ashaton, and I'm help out with the fight."  
  
"Where is G'nolga?"  
  
"That female dwarf?"  
  
"Where is she!"   
  
"At the base palace, just up that street there, along with about three thousand or so undead." Ashaton told them.  
  
A quick check of the tracking device and the Warmage confirmed the information. "He's telling the truth sir, she's that way."  
  
He lowered the crossbow, but didn't relax as he continued to scan the area around him. "What has she been doing?"  
  
"Leading the undead army."   
  
The dwarves all growled and looked like they wanted to go and shoot her right then and there.   
  
"She's leading them?"  
  
Ashaton nodded. "Yeah, the undead have spread across the city over the last few hours, fighting anything that moves and burning down homes, and killing everyone. Some of the people I've talked to told me that she was the one giving out orders."  
  
"What else do we need to know?"  
  
"There are some really freaky undead monsters running around this city   
  
"Sir, remember that Rook's tower was empty. This whole situation suggests that he's the one behind this attack."  
  
  
  
"I know, I've been thinking the same thing."  
  
  
  
"Who is Rook?"  
  
  
  
"He seems to be an Undead Knight, but he's a lot more dangerous than the normal kind. For one thing he's able to think for himself and raise any undead he wants."  
  
  
  
"That might explain that one zombie I met a little while ago." Ashaton muttered.  
  
  
  
"Who was that?"  
  
"That would be me."   
  
  
  
The Dwarves spun around to see Jeb looking down at them from the roof of the building behind them. The old man, with grey skin and barely any hair dropped off the roof. He stared at them and just grinned, revealing rotting teeth.   
  
  
  
"You." Ashaton growled and felt Jeb's odd vibes again.  
  
  
  
The Dwarves raised their crossbows and growled at the undead thing as it looked them over. "I was just following the coward here and look who I happen to stumble across."  
  
  
  
"What are you?" Ashaton asks as he brings his sword up and the ruby flares with energy.  
  
  
  
Jeb just chuckles and straightens up a little. "I'm your killer!"   
  
  
  
He jumps forward and makes a grab for Ashaton, the Dwarves fire, and several bolts slam into his chest. Stumbling to a stop, he glares down at the bolts. Then a hands grabbed him by the back of the neck, lifts him off the ground, and throws him about fifty yards down the street.  
  
  
  
"Ah…"Ashaton started.  
  
  
  
"Ranma Saotome, sorry about this, figured you guys might need a little help." Ranma said with a smirk. Then he held up his hand and a small ball of fire formed as he launched it down the street and hit Jeb just as he was getting up.   
  
  
  
The explosion blew a large hole in the street and sent Jeb flying into the side of a nearby building. Surprisingly he wasn't on fire like a normal zombie would have been. Instead he just slid to the ground and lay there for a few seconds before getting up and glaring at them.  
  
  
  
"Ranma you didn't need to run off like that!" Sheila yelled as she ran up and kicked him.  
  
  
  
"Ow!" He yelled and bounced on one leg holding his foot. "What did you do that for?!"   
  
  
  
"You ran off and left me behind!"  
  
  
  
"Um…" The Commander said.  
  
  
  
"They needed help!"  
  
  
  
"You didn't need to leave me behind!" Sheila growled, transformed into her human form and lifted Ranma off the ground by his shirt.   
  
  
  
"Eh hehehe." Ranma laughed nervously as Ashaton sweat dropped.   
  
  
  
"Well?!"  
  
  
  
"Sorry?" Ranma asked nervously.  
  
"Hey, you two can argue later, that thing is coming back this way." Ashaton told them.  
  
  
  
"He's tougher than he looks." Ranma said as Sheila put him down and he adjusted his shirt. "Where's B anyway?"  
  
"He's still trying CATCH UP!" Sheila yelled and transformed back into her werejaguar form.   
  
"Heh, well I can't help it if he's slow."   
  
"Don't you even start."  
  
He shrugged. "I can take this guy easily enough."   
  
"Can you point us to the palace?" The Commander asked. He figured letting them take care of the thing would give them time to get to G'nolga.  
  
"I can take you." Ashaton said. "Unless Ranma here wants me to stick around."  
  
Sheila turned to him. "Do you know where the rest of the Edge Guard is?"  
  
"Sorry, I haven't seen any since this morning."  
  
"We can handle this then, can you take them to the palace?"  
  
"No problem." Ashaton said. "Come on, let's go, we need to hurry"  
  
The Dwarves took a second to reload their crossbows and the Commander checked the special bolt he loaded a little earlier. The tip was glowing just a little, making it stand out more than a normal bolt would. As they were leaving Sheila stopped dead in her tracks and turned to watch as Ashaton vanished down the street.  
  
"Ranma, was he a werecheetah?"  
  
"Uh, I have no idea, I wasn't really looking to see what kind of werecat he was. Why?"  
  
"I wasn't either, but if he is a werecheetah, he's going to cause a lot of trouble if he sticks around the city."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Werecheetahs are supposed to be all but extinct. As a matter of fact Britanny is supposed to be the last surviving member of the werecheetah clan. There is no way that guy should even exist. Even Raphiel turned out to be a very complicated golem in the end, so I'd like to know where that guy came from."  
  
"Weird, we can worry about that later, that thing is coming back this way." Ranma said and punched his fist into his palm. "Let's take this thing down."  
  
Sheila pulled Ice Fang from its sheath and spun it around a few times. "Sounds good to me."  
  
Even though Jeb was still several yards away, Ranma shot forward at high speed and jumped into the air. He quickly formed a ball of fire between his hands and threw it at the zombie. At the same time Jeb reached behind him and pulled a large crossbow from out of nowhere. He quickly pointed it at the fireball and fired.  
  
Instead of firing a regular crossbow bolt, a bolt of pure magic launched off the end and slammed into the fireball, making it explode long before it would have hit him. As the outer portion of the fireball washed over him, he turned and fired a quick shot towards Ranma as he landed.   
  
"Blast!" Ranma yelled as the bolt hit him in the chest and sent him tumbling to the side.  
  
Jeb sneered and ran forward firing multiple shots from the crossbow as if it was and automatic weapon. Ranma launched into the air as he sent a giant gust of wind towards him and managed to scatter some the energy bolts. Instead of stopping Jeb, it seemed to work to his advantage as he took a second to carefully aim at Ranma.   
  
He grinned.  
  
"ICE KAPOWIE!" Sheila screamed as she sent her swords ice attack flying at Jeb.   
  
The attack didn't even seem to slow Jeb down as he ran forward, aimed the crossbow at Ranma, and held his other hand at Sheila's attack. Ranma landed and instantly jumped to the side, sending another fireball at Jeb, hoping that the two different elements would work to his advantage.   
  
The zombie sent an energy bolt right into the fireball once again and used a shield to block Sheila's attack. They were close enough to him though that they still managed to go off right on top of him, laying waste to the street. It also created a giant fog bank that quickly filled the streets around them.   
  
"Since when can a zombie use magic?" Ranma muttered.   
  
"PATHETIC!" Jeb screamed from within the fog. "Don't think for an instant that I'm normal!"  
  
Cursing, Ranma jumped to the nearest roof and looked down at where he thought Jeb was standing. He saw the fog swirl around the guy as he became visible for just a second, but that was enough time to see Sheila use her human form to sucker punch the guy.   
  
Ranma grinned as he remembered that all of Sheila's strength was in her human form. The zombie is knocked back several feet even as Sheila vanishes into the fog again. He used his Ki senses to make sure he knew where Sheila was as he formed a large ball of white energy and fired it at Jeb  
  
Even while it was in the air he flipped off the top of the building and landed on the ground. Then as the fog enveloped him, he used his momentum to launch himself towards Jeb. His senses were actually showing a blank area where Jeb should have been, but the magical ones were making bits of him glow like small stars.   
  
Especially something inside the guy's chest where his heart should have been. "What do we have here?"  
  
"Ranma?" Sheila asked as she appeared beside him for a second.  
  
"Can you fire another attack at him about half a second behind my blast?"  
  
"Sure!" Sheila yelled as she quickly judged the attack as it flew threw towards Jeb. Then slid to a stop, pulled her sword out, and quickly threw her attack after Ranma's own attack.  
  
Jeb appeared just like Ranma planned, right as his attack slammed into him with a flare of light made him stand out like a beacon in the fog. Then Sheila's attack slammed into him and enveloped him a wave of ice even as Ranma reached him and punched the ice with a glowing fist.  
  
The ice and Jeb shattered in an explosion of ice, sending pieces of both flying into the air around them as the fog started to clear. Ranma stood over the mangled body and massaged his fist. He hadn't expected the ice to be that hard. There wasn't much left of Jeb except a few pieces here and there entombed in ice.  
  
"What did you hit him with?" Sheila asked as she walked and transformed back into her werejaguar form.   
  
Ranma couldn't ignore the skin tight look of the spandex Sheila was wearing, no matter which form. He ignored that and focused on the question though. "Same thing I hit that Hanza girl with, Dispel Magic."  
  
"How in the world did that work? Even with Hanza that was an amazing attack that caught her completely by surprise."  
  
"I'm not completely sure, but Dr. Diggers explained it to me as a spell that disrupts magic, all it has to do is overpower the magic it's dispelling. I just read the magic level of my target, form the spell at about twice that level, and throw it." Ranma said with a shrug. "Easy."  
  
She gave him a half lidded look. "Right."  
  
"What?, I can't help it of that guy is as pathetic as the rest of this moronic army?"  
  
Sheila was about to give him a piece of her mind, when something else interrupted them.   
  
"YOU JERK!"   
  
Ranma jumped about four feet in the air and landed a few feet away and looked around to see B speeding towards him. "Wha…"  
  
"I'LL KILL YOU!"  
  
"B? What's going on?"  
  
The little bot stopped a few feet away and a small missile rose out of its back and launched. "YOU LEFT ME BEHIND, IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO CATCH UP! DIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!"  
  
"Ah crap!" Ranma yelled as he ducked the missile and made a run for it.  
  
"GET BACK HERE!" B yelled and took off after him.   
  
"That little robot is freaky." Sheila muttered and chased after them "Wait up!"  
  
**********  
  
"Well it's about time." Ashaton said as he looked around the corner of the building and down the street.  
  
"What is it?" The Warmage asked as he and the others looked around for a any undead.  
  
"The people are finally pulling together enough to attack the palace and rout the undead." Ashaton said.  
  
The Commander looked around the corner and spotted several hundred people forming up into large groups as they prepared to attack the palace a little ways down the road. "Why didn't they do this sooner?"  
  
"I'm not sure, but I think that is why I haven't been able to find any people lately. See that group over there?" He said as he pointed down the street. "Those old men, they are the one's I saved from that attack I escaped from just before I met you."  
  
"You said there were girls with them right?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm not sure where they are. The only girls out there right now are those Amazons."  
  
"The girls over there wearing next to nothing and the great bodies."  
  
"The one's showing all that skin?" A dwarf asked and looked a bit sick. "That's gross."  
  
"Don't worry about it soldier, just ignore them and let them do their job. We have our own goals to accomplish." The Commander snapped, though he looked a little pale as well.  
  
Ashaton made a mental note not to mention half naked human girls again. "We need to get by them if we want to get to the palace. Do you want to go through or around them?"  
  
"I don't want to get caught up in this human problem." The Commander said. "They are taking care of it on their own, we have other things to worry about at the moment."  
  
"Then we go around them." Ashaton said. "You do realize we will have to fight our way through the undead right?"  
  
"Yeah, though I'll avoid them If we can. All I want is G'nolga in my custody."   
  
Ashaton shrugged. "It looks like they have everything under control. I even see some mages over there using their magic to conjure up equipment for the army. How about we circle around and wait for them to attack so we can use the confusion to get in to the palace?"  
  
"That's exactly what I was planning." The Commander said and nodded.   
  
Nodding, Ashaton pulled his sword out and pointed down an alley across the street. "Let's head that direction and come around the east side of the palace."  
  
The Warmage pulled a map of Seer's Hamlet out of his cloak and made a quick check of the direction. "That looks good, we can come around to a side entrance as well. The Undead may not be guarding the side entrances as well as the main one."  
  
"Excellent, let's move. We are running out of time."  
  
"You have a time limit?" Ashaton asked.  
  
"Yeah, I'd like to get in and out of the city within an hour or less"  
  
"We may not be able to pull that off."  
  
"We will still try." The Commander snapped as he adjusted his crossbow. Then he turned to the rest of the men. "All of you load the special bolts, it's time to put them to use."  
  
Each of them quickly unloaded the regular crossbow bolts and replaced them with red winged bolts. Ashaton pointed at them. "What are those?"  
  
"We use them to kill problems down in the Halls." The Commander said with a smirk. The rest of the dwarves laughed with him as they glanced about evilly.   
  
"Um, right, well hurry it up." Ashaton said nervously.  
  
"Ready." Each of the dwarves said quietly.   
  
"Let's go."  
  
Running down the street, Ashaton noticed that the dwarves were easily keeping up with him so he picked up the speed until they started to fall behind. Whatever magic they were using to run it sure made them faster than he expected them to move. They quickly circled around the palace and came to a stop at the entrance to a park that led to the park that heralded the next entrance.   
  
This one was guarded by undead as well, but there were only a hundred or so on this side. Ashaton pointed it out to the Commander as they hid behind a large bush.  
  
"It looks like they are expecting the army to attack the front of the building from the front."   
  
"G'nolga isn't that stupid sir." The Warmage said.  
  
"She might have made a mistake."  
  
"I doubt that, this feels like the kind of trap she likes to set up."  
  
"We don't have time to choose another entrance." The Commander snapped.  
  
"There are over twenty of you." Ashaton pointed out as he glanced at the multi shot crossbows. "We can get through them in a jiff with our speed and a sneak attack."   
  
"Let's do it." The Commander said. "Silent running!"  
  
Nodding, the dwarves slowly spread out around them and took aim at all the skeletons in front of the small side door. The Commander raised his open fist, pointed at each dwarf and at the target they were supposed to take. Ashaton kept quiet, having seen something like this on a couple of occasions.  
  
Moving professionally, the dwarves pulled their hoods up and the magical cloaks made them blend into the fauna around them. Gesturing for Ashaton to stay where he was, the Commander rose up and aimed his crossbow into the center of the enemy. As one group they all surged forward, firing quickly and precisely.   
  
"Thicketta thock thicketta chock!"   
  
Ashaton watched as the enemy started to exploded one after another as the dwarves swarmed at them from the front and sides. Panicking, the undead pulled their swords even as they exploded into small showers of bone. Within seconds the whole areas was dead silent as the dwarves knelt in a large semi circle around the door.   
  
Then one by one they made their way to the door and knelt down to either side of it. Ashaton quickly ran over to the group and knelt down as the Warmage cast a spell at it and nodded. He glanced at the Commander.   
  
'Warded.' He signed.  
  
'Get rid of it.'  
  
'There are Zombie Paladin's on the other side, waiting.'  
  
'How do you know that?'  
  
'Can't you smell them? I can smell the stench of the recently dead.'  
  
Scowling, the Commander glanced at the door for a second and nodded. 'Now I can.'  
  
'What about using the Pot?'  
  
'I wanted to save that, it's the only one we have the G'nolga won't anticipate.'  
  
'Flash crystal?'  
  
'Against zombies?'  
  
The Warmage frowned and rubbed his chin. 'Hmm…'  
  
"How about we use our speed to rush in, tie them up into a large group, and take them out with one of those explosive bolts of yours?" Ashaton whispered his suggestion.   
  
"Sir, we don't have much time." One of the dwarves said, the human army is beginning its attack on the palace."  
  
The Commander sighed and nodded as he motioned at the Warmage. "Get ready, follow your training and this will only take a few seconds. Remember not to look at your target."  
  
"Sir!" The men whispered.  
  
"The time for silence is over, let's just move."   
  
Ashaton knew a well trained team of men when he saw them and was a bit amazed at how well they worked together. He made sure his sword was out of the way and let the Dwarves take the lead as the Commander motioned for him to stand back.   
  
Normally he would have resented that, but this situation was already out of control and they needed to move fast. He would only get in the way as the team moved forward. "What do you want me to do?"  
  
"You are our back up, follow along behind us as we move through the palace and make sure no one sneaks up behind us." The Commander said.  
  
He sighed and nodded. "Good enough, I want to get this while day over with so we can get things back to normal."  
  
"Then let's move."   
  
The Warmage tapped the door and it swung open, slamming into the wall, and nearly ripping itself form its hinges. Not even a second later the first Dwarf was through the door and firing into the surprised zombies on the other side. Within seconds the whole area was filled with that odd sound the Dwarves crossbows made as they went into rapid fire.   
  
Decomposing bits quickly covered the room from floor to ceiling as nearly two dozen zombies were removed from the room. Ashaton watched as the Warmage used his abilities to set the room on fire as they left it, ridding it of any chance that remains might follow them. Zombies were a tenacious bunch even at the best of times.   
  
"Why couldn't the paladin's defend themselves against these guys?"  
  
"They were overwhelmed by hundreds of undead, not just a few of these wimps we are encountering. I'll also bet that G'nolga sent the main portion of her army outside to defend the palace, so we won't encounter to many in here." Ashaton said.  
  
"Warmage, where is G'nolga?"   
  
The tracker was quickly pulled out and consulted. "Sir, she's three hundred yards in that direction." The Warmage said and pointed down a corridor.  
  
"We need a map of this place." Ashaton muttered as he looked into an empty room and spotted a large hole in the far wall where something had melted it's way through.  
  
"We tried, but the council doesn't give things like that out and there are rumors that they rearrange the walls in this place every now and then just to make it harder to take."  
  
"Check that hole out, it looks like something came through here recently."  
  
The Warmage glanced into the room. "I don't know of any undead that can do that, but a mage could easily pull it off."  
  
"You think there's something more dangerous than undead in here?"  
  
Ashaton considered it for a few seconds before shaking his head. "No, but I think whoever did that might be on our side."  
  
"Let's hope so, but just in case be extra careful." The Commander said and turned to his men. "You and you, head down that hallway and scout around a little bit."  
  
They saluted and pulled the hoods of their cloak up just before they ran down the hallway and vanished. Seconds later the two Dwarves returned at a run. "Sir, there is chanting coming from the big room at the end of the hallway."  
  
"Chanting? As in magic?"  
  
They nodded.   
  
"Let's move, we need to stop them. Whatever they are doing can't be good for anyone."  
  
**********  
  
Dr. Diggers was not in a good mood. Most of the undead in the palace was moved outside a little while after he started to roam around looking for G'nolga. That was good, but the Dwarf had actually managed to trick him by setting up several magical traps, one way corridors, and other low level magic that was used to confuse people.   
  
He hadn't fallen for any of them yet, but it took a few minutes and more and more of his magic to defuse everyone he encountered. If that wasn't enough, G'nolga had set up traps for him where zombies of the people from town would attack. He really didn't like killing people he knew by name, but that was what G'nolga was using them for.  
  
"Honey, are you sure this is the only way to get to the inner hall?" Julia asked. "We can…"  
  
"G'nolga used the secret passages to get into to the palace. So we can't use them to get there, they are probably just as booby trapped as this hallway is."  
  
"Still, I think it would be easier than what we are going now." Julia said. "G'nolga is entrenched in this building more than expected."  
  
"This whole plan was designed ahead of time, they are just performing the plan as they were trained to." Theo explained and pointed at the small ruby trap just a few steps away. "Those traps are way to easy to set up, all she had to do was toss them on the floor after making sure they wouldn't go off when she or any of the undead neared them."  
  
"Have we figured out who is behind this yet?"  
  
Dr. Diggers shook his head. "We know who is leading the army, but not the one behind the army."  
  
"Any guesses?"  
  
"There are only a few people that have the power to pull this off. My father could do it, but he would have shown up by now if it was him, just so he could gloat and finish me off once and for all."  
  
"I've had a bad feeling ever since we entered this place." Julia said.  
  
He pointed his finger at the ruby as it started to glow and a beam of red energy fired out and hit the ruby, reducing it to dust. "Me too, but until we can figure out what's causing it we have to press on. It reminds me off that mine we explored that one time."  
  
"The one full of orcs or the abandoned dwarven tunnels where that shadow dragon took up residence and roasted all the dwarves for lunch?"  
  
"The second one, remember that dragon pumped out fear aura like it was bout out of style."  
  
"I forgot about that, it made moving around that place almost impossible. That isn't what I'm feeling though."  
  
"True, but there is a hint of it in the air as we get closer to the inner room."  
  
Julia glanced around and used her senses to take a closer look down the hallway. "You think one of 'those' might be here? It is an undead monster, though they are completely unpredictable."  
  
"I was considering it."  
  
"I hope not, they are hard to kill even for us."  
  
"It's all those protections they carry around."  
  
"Let's not forget how they like to collect undead and improve on them, making them stronger and more powerful."  
  
Theo stopped and looked around. "Can you hear chanting?"  
  
Concentrating a bit, Julia nodded a few seconds later. "Yeah, I would recognize that anywhere."  
  
"Let's move, we have stop them, once they finish that spell it will cause more problems than what G'nolga knows about." Theo said as they started to move down the hall a little quicker, stopping ever now and then to remove a gem lying in the middle of the floor.  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"The city protections will fail, even the one that keeps it inside the dimensional pocket."  
  
"How is that bad, the area around Seer's Hamlet is an open grassland for a reason."  
  
"The city will take up it's former space, but it will also rip apart all the spells that make the city run. We anchored to them to the dimensional pocket a long time ago."  
  
Julia paled a bit and nodded. "If that happens every thug and criminal on the continent will come here and cause problems now that the paladins are almost completely gone and the Edge Guard can't handle more than they are now."  
  
"I will also collapse the gate to the Retreat that we protect."  
  
"Will they be trapped?"  
  
"No, but getting across the barrier will cost about a hundred times the time and power just to open the gate. They chose that place for a reason and if the gate falls they will be unable to leave for quite some time. It would take us several months just to get everything set up to open the gate again as well."  
  
"Do you think this is what G'nolga is trying to accomplish?"  
  
Theo didn't answer as he carefully took out the last gem sitting on the floor at the end of the corridor. Now that they were at the door he could hear what they were chanting and he paled a bit. "G'nolga might not be going for that, but she got that spell from Gothwrain and he would."   
  
"Then let's stop them before it's too late."  
  
Nodding, Theo placed both his hands on the door and started to flare his aura, quickly building up a massive amount of power. "Stop them as quickly as you can, I'm going to shatter the stone."  
  
"No problem, I doubt any of this spell casters can put up a decent fight."  
  
"Don't underestimate them."  
  
"I know what I'm doing dear." Julia said with a smile and made sure her sword was ready. "Any time you're ready."  
  
"Then let's go!" Theo yelled as his aura surged to his hands and door exploded into the room, sending wood and metal bits flying everywhere   
  
Dr. Diggers, in full Archmage mode walked into the room with his aura bright enough to blind anyone that could see him. Sitting in the middle of the room was the small pedestal where the stone rested. Someone had moved it out of the adjacent room and placed it in the middle of a spell circle. Ten cloaked mages sat around the pedestal performing the chant.   
  
There was a circle of stones and debris around them, but it was obvious that a shield had protected them. Behind him Julia sprinted across the room and started to take down the undead faster than they could react, moving faster than humanly possible. Theo rarely saw her move like this, but he didn't have time to watch her work. He had other things to worry about.  
  
"Stop the spell or you will regret it." He threatened the mages.  
  
"They are caught up in the spell Dr. Diggers." G'nolga said as she sat in a throne like chair across the room.   
  
She appeared to be relaxed and didn't seem to care that he was there at all. Or that Julia was laying waste to the undead about the room in a brutal and efficient manner. The Dwarf stood up, the pendent around her neck glinting in the light of Theo's aura and just started to walk towards him. She wasn't even carrying a weapon as far as he could tell.  
  
"The spell you are casting isn't the one to break the spell on the stone…"  
  
"Oh I know that, Gothwrain said it would have some side effects, but that it would break the spell."  
  
"You will upset the magical balance throughout the city, thousands will die…"  
  
"So what?" G'nolga snarled. "I have my goals and will make any sacrifice to make sure they are achieved. Anything that dies along the way will join my army."  
  
Theo realized he shouldn't have engaged G'nolga in conversation. Now that she was so close he would only have time to attack the mages once and he didn't know what kind of shield they were using. He glared at G'nolga for a few seconds. "Then you don't leave me any choice in the matter."  
  
She just grinned at him and took a fighting stance. "Julia can fight me to a stand still, but you don't stand a chance. Wizards are wimps, I've been fighting them for years and know every trick and tactic you might even think of using."  
  
"I doubt that." Theo said and gave her a small grin of arrogance.  
  
He scanned her as she just stood there, wearing what looked like an outfit made out of leather. Somewhere in the last few minutes she had changed clothes. Now she was wearing an outfit unlike anything he's seen her wear in all the time he'd known her. The first thing he noticed about the outfit was the skin tight black mage suit she was wearing.  
  
Over the last couple decades warriors adopted the mage suit, usually black, for its skin tight qualities. G'nolga had added to it though, starting with a white and red vest, silver gauntlets, and a headband. It allowed her the freedom of movement that a lot of fighters liked to have, but covered her at the same time.   
  
He made a gesture and formed a sphere of force around his body. "Well? Are you going to stand there all day?"  
  
G'nolga just grinned and held out her gauntleted hand. With a flare of light her sword appeared in her hand. "Why not?"  
  
"Don't underestimate me." Dr. Diggers said as his aura grew.   
  
"Do you think I haven't seen a display like this before? All you magi are the same, weak and predictable."  
  
"It isn't a matter of power G'nolga, it's how you use that power that makes us so dangerous."  
  
"Aura users are vulnerable to metal, that places you at a distinct advantage against me." G'nolga said and let the light of Theo's aura play off the flat of her blade. "What makes you think you will be any different?"  
  
"Experience." Theo said with a grin and made couple of gestures with his hands. "Just watch and see what I can do."  
  
"Enough!" G'nolga yelled and ran forward, crouching low to the ground and trailing the edge of her sword in the air beside her.  
  
Thrusting his hand forward, Theo calmly completed his spell and the whole room began to shake. G'nolga was to experienced to let a moving floor slow her down, so she just ignored it. Until it came up to meet her, literally, as pillars of stone shot out of the floor in front of her.  
  
Her eyes widened as one came up beneath her and slammed into her chest and lifted her off the ground. The sound of grinding stone filled the air as she rolled off the rising pillar just before it hit the ceiling with a thunderous amount of noise. Twenty feet in the air, she twisted and bounced off a dozen or more pillars as they rose to meet her on the way down.   
  
"Pathetic mage!"  
  
This time the gesture was almost unnoticeable, but G'nolga saw it and instantly changed the direction of her fall. The pillars around her started to explode one by one, showing the room with smoke, dust, and small pieces of stone shrapnel. She landed on the floor a few seconds later and used her sword to bat pieces of stone out of the air.   
  
Through the smoke and haze she could see Dr. Diggers glowing like a star as he stalked towards her. She growled deep in her throat and just grinned evilly. There was one in the world that she liked above all else and that was a good fight. She glanced to the side to see Julia finishing off the last of the undead and gave a little nod.   
  
Fighting Julia wasn't part of her plan right now, there were more important things she had to take care of first. Reaching into her vest she pulled out a small pouch and turned back to Dr. Diggers. Even Julia, after all their fights, hadn't seen all her fighting skills. Rook's orders echoed throughout her mind as she quickly decided on a course of action.   
  
Off to the side the mage circle continued to chant in a higher and higher voice as the spell took control of them. It swept them up in an orgy of power that they craved above all else. The wererat had brought them and explained the whole spell and it's advantages they brought with them. Humans were such weak and pathetic creatures at times.   
  
There were so very few of them that could withstand dwarven strength and live to talk about it. Corrupting the rest of them was so easy that even she was amazed at times that the race was still alive. Those like Julia and her family were a different story, they were always dangerous and unpredictable. Pouch in hand, she launched herself across the dust filled room and focused on Dr. Diggers completely.  
  
A voice in her head told her to finish this fight quickly and open them way. She acknowledged it silently and threw the pouch at Diggers. "I got you!"  
  
He gestured and bag exploded, just like she wanted it to. Even through the dusty air she could read the look on his face as he realized he'd just made a mistake. The same mistake that allowed her to take down so many mages before him. Aura Magic is vulnerable to metal, disrupting any spell in an instant and collapsing it around the caster.   
  
A metal tipped staff could easily penetrate a force field created with Aura Magic, a simple throwing spike could break through the guard of any mage that wasn't paying attention. Experienced mages like Diggers knew this and used it to their advantage, but in the end they were still vulnerable. Her pouch was full of iron powder and simple flour.  
  
"&%$#@!" Theo yelled as the grey cloud exploded form the bag in a wave.   
  
"Theo!" Julia yelled as she ran across the room.   
  
Reaching into her vest, G'nolga pulled out a match, lit it with her thumb, and tossed it into the cloud. The iron dust disrupted any spell he might cast and the flour, while floating around in the air, was highly dangerous. The match ignited the flour and the area went up in a giant fireball.  
  
Then G'nolga turned, held her gauntlet out towards Julia and glared at her. "I'm not ready for you yet."  
  
The gauntlet glowed and Julia was hurtled across the room and slammed into the wall. She slid down with a groan and lay there for several seconds before she started to move. Then G'nolga stalked over to the mages and passed walked right through the barrier protecting them. An instant later the chanting stopped and the stone flared with light.  
  
"Finally, I knew distracting them would work out."  
  
"G'nolga!" Julia screamed as she flipped to her feet and at the group.  
  
Ignoring her, G'nolga reached out and touched the stone and vanished from sight.   
  
Julia slammed into the sphere of magic and pounded her fist on it. "NOOO!"  
  
"Damn it, that dwarf has got to be the slipperiest criminal I've come across in some time." Theo said as he limped out of the fire.  
  
"What are we going to do? She has to be stopped or something worse is going to happen."  
  
Dr. Diggers was covered in soot, but his aura was still flaring around him as he stood beside her and placed his hand on the barrier, or where it should have been. Instead his hand passed right through it. "Interesting."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
After stepping through, it took him about three seconds to remove the mages from the fight with a simple stun spell. Then he turned and looked at the rock. Julia watched as he picked it up, the thing was already starting to break into pieces, but it was happening slowly.   
  
"Can you fix it?"  
  
"I've been wanting to get rid of this thing for a very long time, but the others wouldn't hear of it. They don't like change."  
  
"How long do we have then?"  
  
"I'm already stabilizing the spells so that the while spell web doesn't collapsed around us."  
  
"What about G'nolga?"  
  
"She's up top now, I just hope someone up there is prepared for her."  
  
"Teleport me up there, I'll stop her, I owe her a few more broken bones for when she blackmailed me into throwing that fight."  
  
"I can't." Theo said as he sat down on the floor and a circle of magic formed around him.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"The stones power needs to be stabilized, it's already to late to stop from falling apart, but I can reset most of the spells temporarily and use my own power to make sure they keep working."  
  
"What about this spell shield that is still up."  
  
"It's the only thing that kept the whole web of spells from collapsing in an instant. Gothwrain must have known what he was doing when he created this spell of his."  
  
"Then I'll take the stairs." Julia said as she quickly repositioned her sword on her back.  
  
"Hurry, we have to stop this."  
  
"It's been a while since I've taken the stairs up…"  
  
"She most likely sent quite a few undead up the stairs at some point, be on guard as you circle around the trunk."  
  
"No problem, good luck."  
  
Theo just nodded as she turned, ran across the room, started up the stairs at a full sprint. There was a hole in the middle of the stairs a little ways up, but she jumped over that easily and continued until she vanished from sight a little while later.   
  
**********  
  
G'nolga stood at the top of the stairs and saw that the rock had teleported her right into the rest area at the top of the stairs where one normally teleported to when they came to the Upper Palace. She scowled as she glanced around and noticed that there was no sign of Dr. Diggers as far as she could tell and they had teleported at the same time. On the other hand there was someone waiting for her.   
  
He glared down at her, draped in a cloak that covered his seven foot frame and hid most of his features. Then, she got a glimpse of his facial features and realized that he was a werelion, one of the rare breeds that didn't like to be in the human lands if they could help it. "Onoli, commander of the Edge Guard."  
  
"G'nolga." He said mildly as he carefully removed his cloak and tossed it to the side. He was wearing loose pants, a tight shirt with no sleeves, leather arm bracers, and a sword belt with a pair of swords resting on each hip. "Please back down and let the Council of Mages see if they can counteract the brainwashing that was used to turn you into this pathetic version of who you used to be. There is still time for redemption, you know this." He implored.  
  
She sneered as she recalled all the times that the members of the Edge Guard had humiliated her on one occasion or another. The first had been Sheila, then Tirga had gotten her, then that pair Gar and Luan had played her for a fool just a few short months before when she was to fight Julia in the Tournament of Arms, which reminded her of the titanic failure that endeavor had turned into. She growled in anger as she gazed upon the being that lead the team that one point in time had caused her world to fall down around her shoulders.   
  
Then she recalled everything she had ever heard about the man himself and knew she had to be careful, there were rumors that the only reason the man wasn't one of the Weapon Masters of Jade was because he had never tried to gain the position. He was very dangerous, even more so than the group that he led as well as or better than the Wizard Gaja.   
  
The man was tempered by his soft spoken ways and access to a magical item that could reduce the great tree they were standing on to a giant pile of splinters with on titanic blast if he wanted it to.   
  
She also suspected that he had several other tricks up his sleeves as well, but even as she glanced at the two short bladed katana at his waist she wasn't sure just how good the guy really was.  
  
"Brainwashing? Redemption?! What makes you think that I even need any of that kind of crap?"  
  
"All one has to do is look in your eyes."  
  
She let out a mirthless laugh and rotated her head from side to side to pop her neck a couple of times before she turned the full force of her glare on the being in front of her an grinned just enough to show her teeth Holding her hand out she flicked her wrist and her collapsible staff elongated with a loud snap. "You have quite the reputation Commander, but you aren't up to my level and that means I will crush you."  
  
The werelion didn't even flinch under the glare of a fighter that had made lesser fighters wet themselves in the middle of combat. He calmly crouched down a little as he gripped the hilts of his two swords Seraphim and Necro.   
  
As they left their sheaths they began to glow just a little. Seraphim with an inner brightness and Necro with a kind of anti-light of the deepest blue, as if they were fueling each other with each other's energy. "I will stop you G'nolga."  
  
"You are a hundred years to early to take me down Lion!"   
  
"Without honor you are nothing but a leaf blowing in the wind and you abandoned honor the day you cheated in the middle of the Tournament."   
  
If at all possible G'nolga's glare increased a thousand fold as they watched each other. "I will kill you where you stand."  
  
"No, I don't think you will."   
  
G'nolga screamed and launched herself forward in a sprint, keeping her body low to the ground. "AGHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"  
  
Almost instantly, Onoli recognized the move G'nolga was using as one Gar experienced just a few short months before when he faced off against her A Master move, a lethal one that was powerful enough to shove G'nolga's staff through his chest and explode out his back the instant she hit him Normally he wouldn't have been to worried, but he wasn't sure his regeneration would be able to keep him alive after such a blow.  
  
He stayed calm as she ran towards him with every muscle in her body tensed to complete the attack. With his eyes narrowed his senses started working so fast that the world around him slowed to a crawl as he entered the state of mind that the monks that raised him called The Void. In this state of mind, G'nolga's attack wouldn't be as effective as she wanted it to be.  
  
In an instant a hundred countermoves flashed through his mind, most of them fatal, the others less so. He quickly chooses the one he wants and moves. To the outside observer Onoli seemed to glance at the oncoming G'nolga and calmly use his left sword to knock the staff to the side as she moved in for the kill. At the same time he twisted the blade in his other hand around and punched her in the forehead with about half his werelion strength. Far more than he would normally use, but against G'nolga holding back is not an option.  
  
She grunted in shock as the sledgehammer like fist slammed into her and sent her to the ground, hard. In an instant she rolls out of the way of an unexpected follow up to his attack would've cut off her arm at the elbow. Reacting on instinct as she rolled, twisting the staff in her hand and thrusting it into his stomach with a growl of fury.  
  
Even with the amulet influencing her actions, Rook allowed her to make certain decisions on her own. She would never been allowed to lead Rook's army if she was a mindless slave. The Undead Knights followed her reluctantly, but when it came to combat, that was where she had to most control over her own actions. She had no intention of letting yet another inferior bastard stop her from completing her mission.  
  
Her attack wasn't a hard blow, not even by G'nolga's standards and not to a werelion, but it was enough to knock him back a couple of steps It gave her all the time she needed to get to her feet and spin the staff around to block a sudden flurry of sword slashes. Compared to the kind of attack she remembered Julia using against her, she knew that Onoli wasn't as good as she was. He just made up for it by not panicking even when he was in the middle of a fight.  
  
"Heh, you do have some skill." She hopped back a few steps and glared at him.  
  
"Indeed, you seem to be outmatched." Onoli countered as he stood in a relaxed stance that would allow him to block anything she might throw at him. "I thought you were better than this."  
  
"I expected nothing less from you commander, but you don't' seem to understand what is going on here. That attack I just used is a testing attack. I use it to determine if an opponent is worth fighting. Very few have the ability to block it. If they miss they are either dead or so seriously injured that they aren't worth fighting anymore."  
  
"So what?" He asked mildly, unconcerned that G'nolga seemed to want to talk more than fight.  
  
"I used it against your friend Gar a few months ago and he barely had the ability to block it and wound up spending a couple weeks recovering from the blows. It takes a special kind of talent and training to block it, now that you have proven yourself worthy, I will BREAK YOU!!" G'nolga screamed, the veins on her face standing out around her eyes with the force of the scream.   
  
She exploded into motion, the staff moving so fast that it was impossible tell what she was spinning as she shot forward. Even while using The Void Onoli found that he had problems just keeping up with G'nolga as she used a master's technique he wasn't aware of. He was just a half a second to late getting his defences up and that was all the possessed dwarf needed to overwhelm Onoli.   
  
Seraphim and Necro flared with energy and lit up with their two forms of light and for several seconds the two of them were nothing but a blur. The sounds of metal weapons slamming against each other at high speed could be heard for some distance. Every time Seraphim blocked a strike against G'nolga's staff there was a shower of bright sparks and in the darkness of the upper branches of the tree it made for an eerie sight. In the back of Onoli's mind he wondered where the sparks were coming from since her staff was made of a wood.  
  
They didn't fight with their eyes that would have been impossible as they left the lighted area around the top of the stairway and moved onto the wide branches of the tree where almost no light was provided. Sparks flew with each exchange and block and through it all G'nolga could be seen with a huge evil grin on her face as she forced Onoli back with each blow.   
  
Not once did she use the same attack pattern as she forced him to use every bit of skill he had available. At this level she could tell just how good he was and just how far he had to go before he reached her level. There was a comparison, he didn't stand a chance.  
  
She suddenly stopped and let Onoli continue backing up a couple of steps as she shrank the staff down to it's hand held size and put it away. "You're no match for Julia, Onoli, so there is no way you can stand against me."  
  
The werelion gasped for breath as he had a second to calm down. "I have to admit you are better than me. That doesn't mean I will give up though."  
  
"I don't need to beat you anymore." G'nolga said.  
  
Onoli narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Why would you think something like that?"  
  
"That would be because of me, werelion." Said a rather loud rumble from the darkness behind Onoli.  
  
The werelion's eyes shot wide open as he spun around and he had a brief glimpse of a giant white clawed paw as it swiped him off the tree and threw him into the inky black sky that covered the land. He cried out in shock as, for just the briefest of seconds, he could make out the bulk of a giant Dracolich hidden among the leaves of the tree. There was someone else there as well and in that instant he knew he had failed as a ball of red lightning formed in the hand of a black armored man.   
  
The ball flew out moving far faster than normal lighting and slammed into him with the kind of force unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. With a scream, his body flared as a red ball of lightning formed around his body and sent him towards the ground so far below that he couldn't even make out Seer's Hamlet. He had a brief glimpse of the sky above him as he fell as the lightning story started to grow out of control, forming a massive dome of arching electricity.   
  
**********  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
End Notes – Rook has arrived and taken the first step towards his completing his plan. It's a running battle now, in some cases literally, and it's going to end with an explosion that will change Ranma forever. *Evil Grin*  
  
At one point in the GD black and white series Gina stops a Daemon Mouse from killing people by hitting over the head with an iron frying pan. The mouse was strong enough to blow up the entire house with its aura magic, hell and Entire Mountain. G'nolga's flour and iron powder weapon seemed like an ideal way to take out a big and powerful aura mage like Theo. A mage doesn't usually think on such a simple level as using flower dust to create a fireball, but an experienced one who isn't trying to do three things at once might not have been caught. Theo normally wouldn't be caught by something like, but he was quite distracted and had other things on his mind and it fit what I wanted to happen in that scene.  
  
On Ranma defeating Ol'Jeb, I made a lot of changes to how he was originally presented the first time. Back when Rook killed the guy a couple of chapters back and transformed him. Ranma has this unique talent to cast spells with almost no limit to them, but he doesn't really trust the ability. He's pushing his limits to see how much he can do at the moment and he doesn't like what he's finding. As for story Balance, don't worry, things are going to change here pretty soon that will limit his use of magic quite a bit.   
  
This Jade adventure also suffers from Character Bloat. Gods, I'm so tired of Jade. I'm trying to touch on so many characters that it's just making the story way to big and I apologize for that. I'm shortening scenes and speeding through what should have been major fights, Ol'Jeb for example. I think it might have actually given the story a better pacing too, to figure. Shrug.  
  
The final battle will take place in the next chapter and it will mostly revolve around Ranma and rest of the team trying to stop Rook as his plans are finally realized after centuries of planning. Will it be a big fight? Hell yes, but I will make it exciting and limit it to one or two attacks per person just to let all of you know how strong he is now. Just wait until you see what will happen to Ranma because of this fight. It's a major turning point for this story. (BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!)  
  
Thanks to Gordan Stevenson, Stephen Price, and JMerrit for prereading this story.  
  
* This needs and explanation: Ashaton Chaos is a character created by a friend and he wanted me to use him in the story sometime. He has the same curse as Ranma, but that isn't too much of a problem at the moment since this will probably be the only part where Ashaton shows up in. He is from another dimension after all. He is a bit of an over powered character though, so I'm toning his abilities down a bit to show more of his personality and characterization.  
  
The Edge Guard: http://www.monmouth.com/~roxikat/edgeguard.htm  
  
Sheila is Gar's sister. She has a rare werecat birth defect where her human form has her strength and speed instead of her hybrid form. She's an adult in a teenager's hybrid form. She chooses her hybrid form in combat usually because her human form lacks the healing and jagwere dexterity. Also, she's accepted more as 'one of the guys' when she's small, not as a gorgeous damsel to be put on a pedestal to court. Despite her insisted maturity, she uses words like pow and kapowie. Most of her elemental attacks are based around them. She's infatuated with Tirga, but refuses to let him know.  
  
Race: Jagwere  
  
Class: swashbuckler/ fighter  
  
Weapon: Ice Fang, scimitar  
  
Special Ability: The fastest healer in hybrid form.  
  
Gar is second in command of the Northern Edge Guard. A dark and brooding warrior since Brittany Diggers spurned his affections after he tried to defeat her lover Stripe in hand-to-hand combat. Since he was trained by the famous armsmaster, Julia Diggers, the fight was nearly his. Gar refuses to let go for reasons of his own. But Julia taught him first and foremost to have patience without hesitance.   
  
Race: Jagwere  
  
Class: Martial artist/ fighter  
  
Weapon: Thunder Edge, partisan (spear)  
  
Special Ability: During a solar eclipse, Gar can focus his power to perform the Lunar Rave, increasing his strength, speed, and size.  
  
Tirga is a hedonistic, vain womanizer, who relies on his charm to get out of most scrapes. But behind his fun-loving demeanor, Tirga is a cautious, secretive person. Often uses disguises to blend into his surroundings when tracking his quarry.  
  
Race: Were-tiger  
  
Class: Rogue/Tracker/Tactician  
  
Weapon: Fire Claw, morning star mace  
  
Special Ability: His powers of vanity allow him to grow his hair to any length or style to aid in his disguises.  
  
Onoli is the leader of the Northern Edge Guard, and their strongest and wisest member. Raised in bushido schools of thought, Onoli lets little disturb his tranquility. Well-versed in the laws of the Retreat, he makes an eloquent public speaker at the Council.  
  
Race: Were-lion  
  
Class: samurai  
  
Weapons: Seraphim and Necro, swords of Light and Dark soul energy. The Jasper - Rain   
  
Thropan is a mechanical artifact expert as well as a mechanical and magical engineer. He rebuilt and modified the standard issue Edge Guard elemental weapons and gear with his own experimental designs including the device that lets them gate around. With science and technology outlawed on Jade, Thropan toes the line with all his technological experiments using magic for power.  
  
Race: Were-panther  
  
Class: Magical engineer/ martial artist  
  
Weapon: Earth Flail, dragon's claw (bladed nunchaku)  
  
Special Ability: Master of the School of Xiao Pai Long  
  
Omake by Gordon Stevenson:  
  
"Ranma Saotome, sorry about this, figured you guys might need a little help." Ranma said with a smirk. Then he held up his hand and a small ball of fire formed as he launched it down the street and hit Jeb just as he was getting up.  
  
Then as Jeb was getting up, a weird ritual chant was heard echoing out of   
  
the very air around them. So loud that it could be heard up and down the length of the street by everyone within hundreds of feet. What caught them by surprise was the fact that it wasn't in any language that any of them recognized. Not even the dwarven Warmage.  
  
Klaatu..Barada..Ni...cough...mumble...mumble. Then a voice said: "There I've said the magic words!"  
  
With that pronouncement, a bolt of lighting shot down from the darkened sky above them. Just before striking the ground it suddenly split into two arching forks of electricity, writhing like snakes upon the ground. One of the forks struck at Ranma while the other lashed out at Sheila, throwing them off their feet. They were unconscious by the time they hit the ground, a bit of smoke wafting off them as they lay there. The dwarves could only look on in shock as this happened almost instantly.  
  
After several seconds passed, one of the two figures moaned and began to stir, holding his head as he stood up and absent mindedly patted himself down, muttering a curse or two under his breath. He took a moment to stretch out muscles that were locked up by the lightning that arched through his   
  
body, before the figure looked around and realized something profound. "Stupid Magical Books! The figure screamed into the sky.  
  
Sneering, Ash stopped to take stock of his surroundings and noticed that he wasn't where he was supposed to be. "Damnit! I'm still stuck in the past! That Wiseman and his bullshit promises! He told me if I said the magic words I'd be sent home! And here I am still stuck in the past! Shit!"  
  
It was then that Ash noticed something that had previously escaped his attention, he had both of his hands again. "Yeeesss!" Ash Whooped. He had both has hands again, no more names like Lefty or Righty. Both flesh and blood, and not one flesh and the other metal crap. No more problems trying to pick up things and the other problems that went along with a missing hand. He was cured! He had both his hands back and all was right in the world with him.  
  
While exulting over his returned right hand Ash noticed something else as he danced around happily, in full view of a dozen sweat dropping dwarves and an undead twit.  
  
Wait a minute here. Those weren't his clothes. He wasn't wearing these clothes when he said the magic words to go back to his own time. "&%$#ing magic books!" He growled and noticed that his body looked different to him. Looking around he spied a house with a window in it. He moved over to it to look at his reflection.  
  
The face he saw staring back at him wasn't his. It was the face of a young teenaged Asian male. "What the Hell?!" How did this happen and who was the face in the window? Who was going to pay!? It was then that thoughts and memories began running through his head.  
  
Ranma Saotome!!!  
  
That was the name of the figure in the window. Apprentice Warrior of Julia   
  
Diggers (whoever that was) and Apprentice Mage of Theodore Diggers (whoever that was).  
  
The book! The Necronomicon!! Somehow when he messed up the words it sent him here. Into the body of Ranma Saotome!  
  
"Ah just great! This is all I need." Ash Groaned. Not only was he not back in his own time he was stuck in someone else's body.  
  
And if that wasn't bad enough, he'd just noticed that the kid had apparently been getting ready to face off against another Deadite monster, a zombie. At least this he could deal with.  
  
"Shit! Can't I ever get away from those things?!" Ash Wondered.  
  
"Ah well guess I better go help defeat this latest Deadite army I've come across, that is my job as the Chosen One. Maybe this time I can find someone who can send me home."  
  
After that pronouncement, Ash reached behind him, into subspace, and pulled out his trusty Chainsaw and his faithful Remington 12 gauge boomstick.  
  
He stuck the boomstick into a sheath on his back and looped the Chainsaw's strap over his head. The dwarves all moved back as the recognized technology, but of a kind that looked like it wasn't used for good. The blood splatters and dirt that covered the gruesome weapon almost gleamed as Ash patted it like a new born baby. His grin was frightening and a little demented.  
  
As he pondered his next move; more memories crowded into Ash's Consciousness. Fighting moves and Spells.  
  
"Well. Well it seems like I've got a few new tricks to show those Deadite Bastards!" Ash Crowed.  
  
"Time to get at it and show those Deadites who they are screwing with!" Ash thought.  
  
As he was about to leave to kick some Deadite ass Ash noticed his companion, a short fur covered girl. As he looked at her, her name popped into his head, Sheila, that was her name. Weird, her name was exactly the same as the girl he'd just left back in the 13th century. Also, it appeared that she wasa were creature of some kind. Specifically a Jagwere if his new memories were to be trusted, whatever the hell that was.  
  
Ash didn't really care about the specifics of what Sheila was, he just wanted some motivation to fight, girls were good for that. So he walked over to the recovering Jagwere, who had went through the same recovery process that he had. Only a bit faster thanks to her regenerative capabilities, though she still looked a little dazed.  
  
As he walked over to Sheila he reached out for her and said his favorite pick up line (One guaranteed to work): "Gimmie some sugar baby!" and bent to kiss her before she could kiss him.  
  
Sheila noted Ash/Ranma's approach and seemed to snap out of her stupor as he reached out to grab her and kiss her. As his hand neared her arm she reacted with a snarl.  
  
"You…You…PERVERT!!!!" She screamed. As she did this she reached in behind her back a drew out a large wooden Mallet, coated in white flames, which she swung around in an underhanded attack that took Ash in the lower chest.  
  
"Oh &%$#!"  
  
"MALLET KAPOWIE!!!" She yelled as the mallet swung through the air and connected with Ash/Ranma's body. Ash/Ranma was too surprised by the sudden attack to block or dodge it and was knocked into LJO (Low Jade Orbit [Which is a lot better than JLO. Of course what isn't?]) with a scream of shock.  
  
As Ash/Ranma flew out of site. Akane Tendo wondered where she was. One minute she was working out in her family's dojo, beating up a brick or two.  
  
Then as she was going through her daily work out she heard a strange chanting in an unknown language, a bright flash of light, and a loud booming noise. The next thing she knew was that she was waking up in the middle of the street and in need of a shave. Then some pervert comes out of nowhere and tries to grab her. Well she and her mallet sama showed him. She had really Kapowied his perverted ass and taught him not to be such a grabby pervert any more. All boys were perverts!  
  
As she relaxed after her mallet attack. Akane/Sheila looked around and for the first time noticed the village of Seer's Hamlet.  
  
Seeing the unfamiliar, medieval town Akane/Shiela let out a paniced yell   
  
"Where on Earth am I now!" She screamed out.  
  
Back on Earth in the mansion of Erwin "Pee Wee" Talon a certain bandana wearing eternally lost boy had the feeling that he should be suing someone for copyright infringement.  
  
The End. 


	14. Chapter 13

Notes –Chapter edited for nonsence. Well it's been a while since I've posted a chapter for this story. Spent 4 months working on a side story that went over like a rock being thrown into a pond. I was pround of the Side Story, it tied in with the main story quite easily, but seeing as i've heard from maybe 5 people about it so far I was obviously wrong. Grumbles.  
  
So I pounded out what was supposed to be the final chapter of the Jade Saga. Instead i found that I was trying to move the story along way to fast after spending so much time on the earlier chapters of the Jade Saga. So I stepped back and started to expand this chapter. This is the first half of the what I've got completed so far. Ch 14 will be the last chapter of the Saga and the last of Jade for some time to come. 

I'll be happy to finish this monster off as will most of my fans. This thing got way out of hand I think, but it was still a lot of fun to write. All the new characters needed time to be detailed in the story, even Ashaton. Now onto the story, which, suprisingly spends a lot more time dealing with Ranma than some of the earlier chapters, something people will be happier with.  
  
oooooooooo  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 13  
Cory D. Rose  
(c) 2003  
oooooooooo  
  
The sky crackled with energy as the dimensional barrier that covered Seer's hamlet continued to disintegrate. Still, it provided enough light in the upper reaches of the Great Tree for people to see. The massive bulk of the undead Dragon stood in the shadows, its eyes glowing, as it watched the light show. The boom and crash of thunder filled the air ever few seconds.  
  
Stepping in front of the large Dracolich, G'nolga knelt down as Rook walked out of the shadows and stood in front of her. His black armor made him hard to see as the polished portions reflected the light from hundreds of lightning bolts filling the sky.  
  
Spotting them while fighting the werelion was easy enough with light show going on above them, though she was pretty sure Onoli hadn't seen them coming. "Master, it is good to see you."  
  
Rook's mask made it impossible for his face to be seen, but G'nolga could tell that he was studying her. "Is the Upper Palace taken yet?"  
  
"No sir, we encountered unexpected resistance when we took the Base Palace an hour ago. A squad of specially trained dwarves arrived. They delayed the attack with weapons that I've never seen before."  
  
"Did you deal with them?"  
  
"They were slowed down by the stairs. It should take them some time to make their way up here, and by that time they will be exhausted and weak. I'll take care of them myself."  
  
Rook nodded. "Excellent, then everything is on schedule. How goes the rest of the plan? Have the items been place yet?"  
  
"Yes Master." G'nolga said. "The Undead Knights have been placing them at the sights of various attacks since we entered the city. No one has spotted them or taken any either. They finished just before we took the Base Palace."  
  
"Excellent, and what about the rest of the Edge Guard? Have they been taken care of as well?"  
  
"Reports say that most of them are still alive, but spread out across the city trying to take care of all the attacks at once. I've had random groups of undead attacking them every few minutes to keep them occupied as well. With Onoli out of the picture they shouldn't be a problem."  
  
"Even better."  
  
"As you ordered, we have been quickly converting the citizens as we moved across the city. Survivors have been kept occupied as well just to make sure they couldn't form any kind of defense against us. The Skeleton army has been pressing every defender in the city for hours now and every time one of them dies they instantly convert and join our side as a zombie. We have tripled our forces in just a few hours, Master."  
  
Rook chuckled. "The stars are in alignment, but time is short, so we need to be inside the Upper Palace within the next six hours. Can it be done?"  
  
"Easily Master, perhaps within the hour."  
  
"What did you have in mind?" Rook asked as he watched the darkness around him.  
  
"Now that we're up here we can modify the teleport spell for the stairs to work again, bringing up as many troops as we might need. The sheer size of this tree makes holding that many troops child's play. I was also thinking of having the Dracolich bombard the outer portions of the Palace's magical security to make it collapse them around the Council's ears. They depend on it to do the job for them."  
  
"You think you can set this set up within the hour?"  
  
"Yes Master, easily."  
  
"Then get going, I'll have the dracolich attack when he needs to... the others are waiting for the barrier to fall so they can join the fight." Rook stopped as the looked back towards the stairs. "But first, take care of her. She's ruined to many of my plans."  
  
G'nolga turned her head and wasn't at all surprised to find Julia Brigand Diggers standing at the top of the steps. Her battle leathers were showing quite a bit of damage and testified to the amount of trouble she'd had coming up the stairs.  
  
"She seems to have made it past the several squads of zombies placed on the stairs earlier, she has to be tired from all the fighting."  
  
"Kill her, it will make the plan easier to pull off."  
  
"Oh, gladly." G'nolga snarled as she stood up and turned to face her greatest rival and for a second she seemed to glow with a deep red glow that covered her entire body. Even while brainwashed into obeying Rook, G'nolga wouldn't pass up a chance to fight her greatest rival.  
  
As the dwarf turned and started to walk towards Julia, Rook turned and walked over to a small fence to look down on the city below them. Raising his gauntlet he quickly cast a spell he'd prepared earlier. Far below them, the items G'nolga mentioned earlier started to glow.  
  
oooooooooo  
  
"Earth Flail!" Thropan screamed as he slammed the butt of his bladed nunchaku into the ground with the blunt end. A sphere of energy formed around the weapon, its energies reflected in Thropan's eyes as the sphere expanded out and sent a wave of earth flowing down the street to envelop and bury a small squad of skeletons. He was dressed in his normal leathers, but they were tarnished and covered in dust from the constant fighting he'd had to survive lately.  
  
Thropan's cloak was long gone, shredded during the initial fight with the platoon of skeletons and those Undead Knights that had swarmed over him and Tirga just a few hours before. He was covered in small scratches and gasping for air even as he used the magic of his weapons to fight for his life. At his back Tirga was dressed in tattered clothing, everything below his knees was shredded as if a cat had gotten a hold of his legs.  
  
They were both exhausted after fighting non-stop for hours upon end and it didn't look like there would be a time to rest any time soon. Neither one of them liked fighting a hoard of undead on their own, but they couldn't find any of the others. Gar was missing, Shelia was with that Ranma fellow, and Onoli wasn't answering their summons.  
  
Tirga held his morning star at the ready as he watched their backs. His fur was singed and matted from the long fight, and he was barely able to stay on his feet. He knew is duty and that if he fell now Thropan would be left to fend for himself and there was no way he was going to do that. "Pan, we have to find a place to rest for thirty minutes at least."  
  
"There isn't any place we can do that." Thropan pointed out as his eyes scanned over the new graves he'd just created for the skeletons, their shattered bones were buried. He just hoped they would stay there, the things weren't acting like they were supposed to and it bothered the hell out of him. He took a second to holster his weapon before turning back to Tirga.  
  
"We may not have any choice. We both have better than average endurance, but we've been fighting nonstop for close to four hours now. These just aren't backing down, we need to recoup our energies." Tirga reminded him. "We need to plan our fights before things get any worse."  
  
"This area has already been evacuated by the paladins. You notice that? I'll bet you want us to 'borrow' a room for a while."  
  
Tirga nodded. "Yeah."  
  
"And what will the evacuated residents say?" Thropan snapped.  
  
"Who gives a shit?! We have to rest and let our regeneration have a few minutes to get us back up to speed or we won't even make it through the night. Anyway, you barely pulled off that last attack and look at you. I could push you over with a finger." Tirga snapped.  
  
He raised a finger as if to demonstrate that very fact just as they both heard something. They both spun to look down a nearby street as they heard the sound of splintering wood and a large explosion. Then they saw a column of dust rising into the air about half a block away from where they were standing. It appeared to rise into the sky nearly fifty feet above a house.  
  
"What was that?!" Thropan yelled as he pulled out his own weapon.  
  
"No rest yet, let's go and check it out before we do anything else happens." Tirga complained as they jogged down the street, each one keeping an eye out for an ambush or anything else that might jump out at them.  
  
A few streets away they found what they were looking for and had to stop and stare at the three story house that stood before them. It looked like it has seen better days and just recently started to show its true age. What caught their attention right off the bat was the almost completely caved in roof on the right hand side of the house. They could still see the dust hovering about the house.  
  
Thropan didn't waste time with words as he ran for the front door of the old house. He punched the door without slowing down. Like all werecats he was faster and stronger than any human, even while exhausted, so when the door blew off it's hinges he didn't even notice where it went as he forced his way through with Tirga just a few feet behind.  
  
They didn't make it too far though, just as they turned the corner, they skidded to a halt right before they would have fallen into the rather large hole that took up over half the building. They both took a second to gape at the destruction and gazed down into the smoky darkness below.  
  
There was too much dust in the air to really see anything with the sun down it was almost pitch black even to their enhanced eyesight. Stepping away from the edge of the hole, Tirga gook a second to try and assess the situation. He could tell that something large had fallen through the roof and caused all this damage.  
  
"Can you see anything at all?" Tirga asked.  
  
"No, just the very top of a pile of debris filling what I'm assuming is a basement." Thropan said.  
  
"I can't even see that much, but I sure smell something and it's got me worried."  
  
Giving his friend a glance, Thropan sniffed that air and focused on that more than his eyes. "Impossible!"  
  
"Our noses don't lie." Tirga muttered. "We have to figure out how he got down there."  
  
"But he should be on patrol right now!"  
  
"Nope, he's down there instead. The only way we can get some answers is to go down and ask him ourselves."  
  
With practiced ease they sheathed their weapons and looked around for a way into the basement. "There has to be a door and a set of stairs leading down there." Thropan said.  
  
"Let's just jump." Tirga said and prepared to do just that.  
  
Thropan grabbed a handful of Tirga's thin shirt and pulled him away from the edge. "We can't see where we would land and there may be something down there that might impale us. Let's use the stairs and be sensible about this."  
  
"Oh yeah." Tirga muttered as he let Thropan pull him along by his hair.  
  
"You're not usually this dense."  
  
"Yeah whatever, you can let go of me now." He reminded his friend.  
  
"Just don't run off. Those stairs have to be nearby and there are only so many doors." Thropan explained as he let go.  
  
Grumbling to himself, Tirga started checking doors on one side of the room while Thropan took the other side. It took a few minutes, but they finally managed to find the door to the basement nearly hidden beneath the stairs leading to the second floor.  
  
Tirga, still a little impatient yanked the door open and stuck his head inside to see what was down below. Only to have a wave of dust blow out the door when he pulled it open to fast. He glared at a smirking Thropan and coughed a little before stepping inside and looking down the stairs. "It's still dark down there, we may need a torch."  
  
"To bad Sheila isn't here."  
  
Tirga laughed for a few seconds. "Yeah, that hair of hers could burn for hours and her regeneration would replace it as fast as it burned."  
  
"Yep, but since she's not...let's grab that board lying on the ground at the bottom of the stairs."  
  
"Naw, I have a better idea." Tirga said as he pulled out his mace and twirled it a few times, then held it out in front of him as the spiked ball burst into flame. "I forgot it could do this I use it so rarely."  
  
"That works too. Now let's see if our noses are right or we're smelling something that isn't here."  
  
"Impossible, I'm a great tracker and my nose is never wrong." Tirga said with pride.  
  
"Yeah, just don't let that over sized ego of yours get in the way. It may not fit in the basement."  
  
"Hey!" Tirga yelled indignantly.  
  
Chuckling, Thropan followed the weretiger down the stairs and looked around as the light from the flaming morning star lit up the area. Whatever had fallen through the roof seemed to have pulled most of the debris along with it at the same time. Most of the roof was down in the basement with them and it was hard to make things out with all the dust hovering in the air. "It's hard as hell to breath down here."  
  
"I noticed. Let's be quick, I can smell him over this way." Tirga pointed to a secondary pile of roof tiles and bits of the floor.  
  
"You don't think he's underneath all that do you?"  
  
Tirga nodded. "Yeah, it looks like we'll have to dig for a little while."  
  
"This air is horrid, we need to be quick or we might end up passed out on the lawn out front as our regeneration takes care of dust filled lungs."  
  
The pile was a few feet high and from the looks of it the thing would be easy enough to knock over with their strength. Within a couple of minutes of carefully picking up and tossing various pieces of wood and tile they uncovered a boot. "It is him!"  
  
"How in the world did he get down here?" Tirga asked as they cleared the last of the wood off of their friend and got a good look at Onoli for the first time on several hours.  
  
"I don't know, but he's a mess and most of this damage isn't' from the fall. That is staff damage if I've ever seen it."  
  
"Looks like those bruises that Gar and his girlfriend had on them after that fight with G'nolga the Dwarven weapon's master back during the Tournament of Arms." Tirga said as he examined their leader. "Someone beat the living crap out of him."  
  
"You see his swords anywhere?" Thropan asked. "When he wakes up he's going to want them."  
  
"It'll have to wait for now, let's get him outside where he can recover a lot quicker. Let's use that long board there as a stretcher."  
  
"You're kidding right?"  
  
"What do you mean?" Tirga asked in surprise. "You don't want to take him outside?"  
  
"Yeah, but that board isn't strong enough to hold Onoli's eight hundred pound body. It'll snap like a twig when we're half way up the stairs."  
  
Tirga nodded. "Hadn't thought about that."  
  
"We'll just have to do it the werepanther way." Thropan said as he grabbed Onoli's bloodied body and pulled it up on his shoulders. "Okay, let's go up through that hole there."  
  
Nodding as he looked up at the hole above, they crouched and jumped. Tirga led the way and landed on the edge with ease and stepped back as Thropan landed a couple feet from the edge and had to take a second to adjust his balance. Then they headed outside and glanced around and sighed in relief when they didn't spot any undead heading towards them.  
  
Onoli's breathing was a bit ragged, but even enough that they could tell that his body was quickly repairing the damage it had sustained over the last few minutes. They walked over to the side of the house where the shadows were beginning to lengthen and sat the large werelion down on the ground.  
  
"You wanted a place to rest Tirga, this is as good a time to do it as any other, but we need to have a look out. So you rest for twenty minutes, then I'll rest for twenty minutes okay?"  
  
Tirga nodded. "That works and hopefully Onoli will be awake by then and we can find out what in the hell happened to him."  
  
"Yeah, though he's going to be pissed about losing those swords. They meant a lot to him."  
  
"Yeah right!" Tirga snorted as he sat down next to Onoli. "The big guy here never loses his temper. You know how much he takes after ol'Gaja."  
  
Thropan nodded, but didn't say anything.  
  
oooooooooo  
  
Ranma stood on the edge of the building and looked up at the great tree towering above them like some kind of god. A full moon hung in the sky above them sending an eyrie looking glow over the entire city. He could almost feel a presence from the Tree as he watched it. Even from this distance he could see the wind moving its leaves around in the breeze.  
  
He could also see something moving around up there, but the distance was just too much for him to see any details. There was a fight going on, he could tell that at least. A sword fight if he was reading the sparks he occasionally saw. Sheila was also watching the fight, but she was a stumped as he was about it.  
  
"There shouldn't be anyone up there to fight…" She muttered. "Just the Council members."  
  
"Probably just some undead that got up there."  
  
"No, they can handle just about anything like that. They are some of the most powerful wizards in the land."  
  
"No matter how hard I try to focus on the people fighting I can't make out any details. Just those sparks as their weapons connect." Ranma said, and then he trailed off as something seemed huge started to move towards the fighters.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Sheila gasped. "A Dracolich…"  
  
Ranma frowned. We have got to get up there."  
  
"We can't fight a Dracolich!"  
  
"People are in danger and we have the power to help them." Ranma told her. "It's moving towards the people fighting."  
  
"They are dead then."  
  
"I can barely make the thing out in this bad lighting. A crap…" Ranma muttered as the area around the fighters lit up and a bolt of lightning seemed to fly off the tree and fall to the ground some ways away.  
  
"What do you suppose that was?"  
  
Sheila shrugged. "I'm not sure, some kind of lightning spell I suppose."  
  
"Any guesses? It might be important."  
  
"I'm not sure, Thropan is the best magic user among us. He built all our weapons after all. He'd know for sure."  
  
Nodding, Ranma had to resist the urge to just run for the base palace and head up the stairs. He could get past the undead easily enough, but it would be a lot harder since Sheila had to come with him. "We need to get up there."  
  
"Well duh." B muttered.  
  
Ranma glared the Peebo. "You be quiet, you haven't been much help since we got here."  
  
"I'm supposed to protect you." B snapped.  
  
Ranma snorted. "Fat lot of good that's doing you."  
  
"Exactly Mr.-I-can-punch-through-solid-stone-with-my-bare-hands." Be snapped. "You don't need much protecting. I just need to make sure that giant ego of yours doesn't get out of control."  
  
He glanced down. "Yeah right."  
  
"Now calm down you two." Sheila said as she rolled her eyes. "Let's make some plans here so we can get something done."  
  
Snorting, in imitation of Ranma, B rolled over to Sheila and glared at Ranma from behind her ankle. Ranma almost expected it to stick a tongue out at him, if it had one that is. Sheila ignored him as she turned looked over at Ranma. "We still can't access the base palace Ranma. It's the only way to get up there."  
  
"There are always other ways."  
  
"Like how?"  
  
"Well we could climb up the side of the tree…"  
  
Sheila started to laugh. "Yeah right! It's been done before and no one has ever made it. The tree protects itself from that kind of thing."  
  
"How about just climbing up to one of the stairs and bypassing the base palace all together?"  
  
"The area behind the palace and everything around the tree has been made into a kind of park area. It's a protective ring of magic that prevents that very thing. The further into the park you go the more you want to leave. It's a kind of spell barrier."  
  
Ranma frowned. "How about flying then?"  
  
"Flying?" Shelia asked. "But we don't have wings."  
  
"True, but I think I know a spell that will allow me to fly up there. I've just never used it before. Let's give it a shot." Ranma said as he prepared to jump off the roof.  
  
"You can't be serious." Sheila snapped. "The idea has possibilities, but I'd like to find Onoli and the others before we try anything."  
  
"Then go and look for them." Ranma said. "It could take us days to find three people in this city. I'm pretty sure G'nolga is up there already and I want to put a stop to this if I can."  
  
"The Edge Guard can handle it."  
  
B started laughing. "They are doing such a 'good' job so far."  
  
Now Sheila glared at the little thing. "Why you little…"  
  
"Yeah, but…" Ranma muttered as he suddenly picked B up and started to toss him into the air and catch him.  
  
"Whaaaa…are you doing?!"  
  
"We have to be careful about this Ranma, just rushing in will only get us killed."  
  
"Cut it oooouuuttt!" B yelled.  
  
Ranma wasn't in the mood to listen to the little loudmouth at the moment. He needed to get to the base of the Tree without being caught by the Undead Army. The dwarves had pulled it off, but he didn't have the time to think up a way to do the same thing with just Sheila for help.  
  
"Any more ideas?" She asked.  
  
"No."  
  
"There are too many undead around here to just fight our way through."  
  
Ranma snorted as he snatched B out of the air and tossed him into sub his subspace pocket with his backpack. "Looks easy enough."  
  
"You bastard!" B yelled just before everything went black.  
  
Sheila slapped the back of his head. "You may be able to pull off the impossible and ignore odds, but I can't. Now let's go and find Onoli."  
  
Sighing, Ranma nodded. "That's the only option left, I guess, though I still think that flying will work."  
  
Sheila shrugged. "Guess we are just going to have to…"  
  
"If we are going to go and find the rest of the Edge Guard let's go where they would most likely be instead of wandering around looking for them." Ranma explained.  
  
"I say we check that that thing that fell a little while ago. The lightning strike, though it is quite a ways away."  
  
"MmmmmPh mmmm mmmnnmm!" B yelled from inside Ranma's subspace pocket, but Ranma ignored him.  
  
"Alright, then if that doesn't turn up anything we head for the tree and try your plan. Okay?"  
  
Ranma nodded. "Fine, let's go.  
  
He picked up Sheila and started roof hopping towards the impact point. He had to be careful running over thatched roofs, but knew how to make himself light enough not to cause any damage. A couple of minutes later Ranma jumped off the roof, landed in the middle of a dirt street below, and sat Sheila down.  
  
She had a harried look on her face, but didn't say anything as they looked around. "Well I don't see anything here."  
  
"I think we are still a couple of streets off."  
  
"Let's look around a little. It's way to quiet. We can't even hear the fighting going on a few streets over."  
  
Sheila looked impressed. "You're right, I hadn't even noticed."  
  
"Someone is watching us." Ranma said quietly. "Be on guard."  
  
Nodding, Sheila glanced around but still couldn't see anyone moving about. She pulled Ice Fang out as she started to walk down the center of the street with Ranma following behind her. Her tail lashed back and forth a few times to prove how nervous she was.  
  
"He's close."  
  
"He?"  
  
"Just a hunch." Ranma explained.  
  
"Right."  
  
"Check out the roof of that building over there."  
  
Shelia turned and even though it was dark she could just make out the large hole in the roof of a building. "Wow."  
  
"What do you think did it?"  
  
"I'm not sure, but I'd guess that something fell through it." Ranma said. "It's a little hard to make out, but I don't see anything but the hole itself."  
  
"There would be stuff on the ground it something came from inside."  
  
Ranma nodded. "Exactly."  
  
"Any idea what?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Kitty Kat." Said a voice several yards away.  
  
They turned and spotted Tirga trotting over to them with a big grin on his face. Sheila ran forward and gave him a quick hug. "Where have you been?"  
  
"Chasing monsters all over the city for most of the day."  
  
"Us too, the swamp is full of undead animals."  
  
"Those things are everywhere aren't they." Tirga stated with an annoyed growl.  
  
She punched him in the arm. "Where is everybody?"  
  
Tirga sighed. "Well the Compound was compromised and burnt to the ground earlier along with several other buildings around the city. I found Thropan a little while later and we hooked up, I'm not to sure where Garfield is though, we could really use his leadership right now."  
  
"He's at Healer Nali's clinic, seriously injured." Ranma said.  
  
Tirga glared at him for a second. "Onoli may be joining him then."  
  
Sheila frowned. "Why?"  
  
"He just took a belly flop off a branch of the Tree." Tirga said as he pointed upward. "Landed in that house over there. Me and Thropan pulled him out, but he's going to be out of it for several days while he heals."  
  
"That was Onoli?!" Sheila screamed.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"We're screwed!" Sheila panicked. "Who did this to him?"  
  
"The only thing he said was…G'nolga. We haven't found his swords either, but he won't be able to use them even if we do find them. His hands are a mess. That lightning bolt that hit him ripped him apart more than the fall did."  
  
Ranma looked up at the gigantic tree again. "When I first came into Seer's Hamlet I couldn't see the tree unless I was near the lower palace, now I can see it from anywhere in the hamlet."  
  
"You're a magic user." Sheila said. "The tree is so big that it tends to dominate things, so the Council decided to hide it from the sight of the normal people. You have to be a strong mage of some kind to see it without help. After a while you tend to ignore it even when you can see it towering over the city."  
  
"Well the reason I was asking is that Onoli fell from a limb of the tree, what was up there that threw him off? Does anyone know?"  
  
Tirga blinked. "I've been thinking about that. It's supposed to be impossible to get up there unless one of the Council brings you there or you walk up the stairs that circle around the tree."  
  
"Those dwarves were after G'nolga earlier, so they may have chased her all the way up the stairs too."  
  
"Yeah, do you think she may have been the one to toss him off the limb?"  
  
Growling, Tirga nodded and made a fist. "Onoli did mention her by name. If it was her I'm going to make sure she pays for it."  
  
"She will pay for everything she's done today." Ranma said.  
  
"Tirga, can we see Onoli?"  
  
"Sure, Thropan is with him right now. I spotted you a little while ago and we weren't sure just who you were so we got Onoli hidden out of sight." Tirga explained.  
  
They walked over to a nearby house and saw that Thropan was kneeling in the shadows of a house. On the ground next to him Onoli was laid out with a ratty looking blanket covering his body. Sheila ran over and knelt down next to him. She could instantly smell the blood that permeated his clothing. The werelion didn't even seem to know she was there.  
  
"How bad is he?"  
  
"Bad, I'm not sure what's keeping him alive to be perfectly truthful." Thropan said quietly.  
  
"We need him!"  
  
"We've been trained to take charge of things in any kind of situation Sheila. Including the loss of our leader." Thropan said.  
  
"I don't like it, but he is the one that has the Jasper."  
  
"That's probably the only reason he's still alive." Tirga said.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Gaja used to tell us that The Jasper is a powerful magic item that has amazing powers. I bet it's what's keeping alive as his body regenerates. I'd bet on it at least."  
  
"What about that other guy that's been helping?" Ranma asked. "Perhaps he can help out with Onoli."  
  
"What guy?" Thropan asked as he checked Onoli over again.  
  
"Asha-something" Ranma explained. "He helped Sheila out the other day too and he's been running all over the city for the last few hours helping out as much as the rest of us."  
  
"You think he can do anything?"  
  
"I'm not sure, but I know he uses magic."  
  
"Even I can cast a couple of spells." Tirga snorted.  
  
"As can I. What did you have in mind?" Thropan asks.  
  
Ranma glanced up at the tree again. "Why can't we fly up there and put an end to this once and for all? With the Undead gone we can get help for everyone."  
  
"Fly?"  
  
"Using magic or something. I had the idea a little while and I've been thinking about it ever since."  
  
"Flying with magic is quite hard." Thropan said. "It's easy enough to hover in the air and fire off spells, but to actually fly for long distances? There are very few mages that can do that."  
  
"It's not that rare." Tirga muttered.  
  
"I'm not saying it's impossible, but most magic users don't fly around without the aid of something like a flying carpet, a large beast, or something else. To just fly by magic is quite hard."  
  
"Well yeah, that's true." Tirga muttered.  
  
"It seems pretty straight forward to me." Ranma said. "Just a simple lightness spell and a directed wind gust and off you go."  
  
Tirga and Thropan broke up laughing.  
  
"It's not that simple!" Tirga snapped.  
  
Thropan nodded. "You're just looking at the basics of the spell. You need to think of how the spell will work if you screw up. Lots of things really. Its just not that simple."  
  
Sheila rolled here eyes. "Can we get Onoli out of here now? We need to get him to Nali's clinic and then find a way to get up to the High Palace."  
  
"I wasn't sure about moving him just yet." Thropan explained. "He could have injuries we know nothing about."  
  
"I know a little about first aid like this." Ranma said. "He should be fine if we build him a litter and carry him there while he's laying down like that. I think that once we get him to Nali she can take care of it from there easily."  
  
"What do we make it out of then?"  
  
"Whatever's handy." Ranma said with a shrug. "There should be enough junk floating around here that we can use.  
  
oooooooooo  
  
The High Palace shuddered as the Dracolich slammed its claws into it over and over as Rook directed it to hit in specific spots to form a pattern. The Dracolich's entire body glowed from the energy discharge given off by the shield with very solid hit. The barrier surrounding the large building refused to give into the onslaught of power thrown at it, but that didn't slow the undead dragon one little bit.  
  
It kept up the onslaught using every bit of strength it could muster for the job. Every now and then, if one looked close, they could see a face peak out a window to watch the display of power. From several yards away, Rook watched his minion and knew that it would only be a matter of time before the shield went down.  
  
The fools didn't seem to have any other defenses in place except the shield, which was odd, but it didn't really matter one way or another. He planned long and hard to account for every little obstacle that might pop up. If they weren't prepared for a Dracolich to pound on the shield every now and then, who was he to blame them?  
  
Of course the fools were supposed to have that gold dragon here to help them out and even gave him a lair full of gold to lord over. The poor thing hadn't been seen since it was swatted out of the sky just a few hours ago when he was bringing in the rest of his undead troops and dropping them off near the outskirts of the magical barrier.  
  
With Goldwave out of way over a third of the Palace's defenses were taken away and that was all he needed to make his plan work. Everything else would fall the instant the shield went down and the Dracolich got a little closer to the building. Of course certain defense would still work, but he wasn't worried since his attack was unexpected.  
  
Certain defenses had to be set up ahead of time with power spells cast with more than one of the Council members. Rook knew that those spells hadn't been cast though. A spell he'd placed more than a year before when the Tournament of Arms took place still functioned perfectly. He tweaked it with a flick of his finger and nodded as it told him the same thing as usual. No high level magic was being cast.  
  
He glanced over at the front door of the Palace and noticed the body of the undead that G'nolga sent up earlier. There wasn't much left of it after the defenses finished blowing it into small pieces, but it was still intact enough to tell what it used to be. He knew of the spell and figured it was well known enough that any of the Council wizards would have it handy.  
  
Of course there was also a couple of other bodies slumped against the walls of the Palace. He was a bit surprised they weren't up and walking around by now. It only took a second for him to take a closer look to tell that they weren't dead at all. Just unconscious, perhaps comatose or something. They would have to be taken care of as soon as possible.  
  
That reminded him of G'nolga and he glared at her from a distance. The Dwarf herself was proving to be rather undependable as well. Even though she obeyed his every order there was a resistance beginning to form unconsciously. He almost wished that Mrs. Diggers would do what she usually did and kick the living crap out of the dwarf once and for all.  
  
A flash of light told him that the shield was beginning to weaken and that it would only be a few more minutes. It was exactly what he was waiting for. "Time to set in motion the final step of my plan." He muttered to himself as he reached below his pitch black breast plate. He pulled out a palm sized crystal made of obsidian.  
  
It was almost impossible to tell the difference between his hand and the crystal as he stared at it. Then he started chant quietly, slowly increasing the flow and depth of the rhythm until the crystal started to glow with a purple light lighting up the air around for several feet in all directions. Then holding his hand out he dropped it on the wood below him.  
  
"A sacrifice is called, a sacrifice is given, and I call up on the Zareth the Black's soul to do as I Bid!" Rook yelled just as the crystal hit the wood and spread out across it like a stain, turning the wood as dark as pitch as it washed across the wood like water.  
  
At first nothing seemed to really happen, but then the dark stain slowly started to spread across the surface of the tree. Branches around the inky liquid started to droop the instant it even got close to them. A pendent hanging around Rook's neck also started to glow with purple light, slowly growing in intensity.  
  
A burst of light caught his attention and he turned to see dozens of spells being thrown at the Dracolich from the roof of the Palace and blowing several large holes in the monster, but not much else. Rook noted that they passed through the shield quite easily.  
  
"They must be getting desperate."  
  
"Sir."  
  
Rook turned as a smaller Dracolich lumbered out of the darkness around them and leaned in close. "What is it?"  
  
"The rest of the wing is having problems getting through the barrier holding Seer's Hamlet."  
  
"I told you all that it wouldn't be easy to get through it."  
  
The Dracolich sneered at him. "Yes sir, but even then it takes three of us just to open a hole large enough to get one of us through."  
  
"The barrier will be down by midnight, then you can sweep in over the Hamlet and eat as many of the survivors as you want."  
  
Leaning down over the Rook, the Dracolich glared with it's glowing red eyes and brought it's tail around. Rook noted that a good portion of it's tail didn't exist anymore.  
  
"Just be patient."  
  
"We have been, now it's time for you to give us what you promised." It hissed.  
  
"The Deal was made weeks ago Dracolich, live with it." Rook snapped. "Or else."  
  
Hissing out little flecks of dead skin the thing twisted it's head around to each side of Rook, as if examining him. "You promised us power and treasure flesh bag…"  
  
Now Rook was starting to get mad. "I will give you all the gold in the Palace Draolich, until that shield goes down we need to just be patient."  
  
It glared at him for a few seconds before spreading it's wings and launching itself into the sky. Rook had to resist blowing out of the sky, but disciplining the useless thing wasn't his job. Turning around he took another glance at the growing stain slowly spreading across the tree. Soon his plan would reach a climax.  
  
Laughing to himself he turned to watch Julia as she continued to kick the crap out of G'nolga. Life was good.  
  
oooooooooo  
  
Nali was not in a good mood as the group of heroes barged into the clinic, hopped over various people spread out on the floor, and dropped the werelion off right next to Gar. There really wasn't any room to take in any more patients, but she didn't say anything. No matter how busy she was the Edge Guard was always welcome to come to her for help.  
  
She heard a giggle as they left and sighed. She would even see them when Tirga hit on one of the female nurses. Some days she just didn't want to get out of bed and deal with all the weirdoes.  
  
"Do you think he will survive?" Sheila asked the tired looking healer as they headed for the door. They had to weave through another path of bodies covering the floor and hallways just to get anywhere in the building. Several apprentices were doing what they could while Nali talked to the newest arrivals. Nali scowled as Tirga talked to another girl.  
  
Then she frowned and shrugged. "I don't know. By all rights he should be dead after falling from that high up, but he is a werelion so he may pull through. He's in shock at the moment so I can just monitor him as best I can in this chaos."  
  
Tirga eventually made his way out of the building, leaving several girls blushing in his wake, and making sure he remembered them the next time they met. He watched as several haggard looking paladins made their way up the street. Their once shining red armor now sported holes, burns, and combat damage from fighting all day without a break. Even the magic that helped to maintain the armor could only do so much.  
  
Even injured, the paladins still looked mean and dangerous enough to make most people stay away from them unless they had to get close to one of them. Tirga glared after they passed and shook his head.  
  
"I've never liked them."  
  
"None of us do Tirga, but we have to put up with them. The Edge Guard can't patrol every street, path, and track inside and outside the city constantly. There are only a few of us. The paladin's take up the general slack and allow us to focus on the special jobs." Thropan said.  
  
Ranma was leaning against the wall of the clinic ignoring the conversation, when he suddenly glanced around. "What's that?"  
  
"What's was what?" Thropan asked.  
  
"I just felt something, like a spike of emotion or something like that." Ranma said. "It's hard to explain. I just felt it."  
  
"Didn't feel a thing." Tirga said.  
  
"Same here." Thropan agreed. "Are you sure you felt it?"  
  
Ranma nodded, though not as confidently as before. "I'm sure of it…there it is again."  
  
The two edge guard looked around. "Still don't sense anything." Tirga said.  
  
"It's like a spike of pain this time, but I feel it in my head instead of in my body." Ranma explained and rubbed his forehead.  
  
Before they could continue Nali and Sheila stepped outside and the guys looked over at them. Sheila moved over to Ranma and sighed. "Onoli is going to be out of it for a while. Nali here says he may survive."  
  
The guy's nodded.  
  
"If that's all, I have too many patients to deal with right now." Nali said as she turned around and went back inside.  
  
Ranma opened his mouth to say something when something powerful hit him. Groaning, he staggered around and grabbed his head as a wave of pain seemed to pass through his body. The others quickly grabbed him before he fell to the ground.  
  
"Ranma!" Sheila yelled. "What's happening?!"  
  
"Don't…know." He muttered as lights flashed before his eyes.  
  
"Why is this familiar?" Tirga asked Sheila and Thropan. "We've seen something like this before, but I'm not sure where."  
  
Sheila gave him a look. "You've seen something like this before?"  
  
"Yeah, but it was a long time ago and I can't remember what it means."  
  
"What can we do?" Thropan asked.  
  
"Nali is to busy and she all but dismissed us a few seconds ago."  
  
The others nodded.  
  
"So I think we're on our own with this one."  
  
"You think activating his transformation will help?"  
  
Tirga wasn't sure, but he wasn't going to pass up a chance to see the good looking red headed girl again, even if it was Ranma. Lugging Ranma into the air, Tirga walked over to a nearby barrel attached to the side of a building and tossed Ranma in.  
  
Seconds later a female Ranma surfaced and spit out some water as she glared at Tirga. "I hate this form."  
  
"But you're so cute."  
  
Sighing loudly, Ranma climbed out of the barrel and hopped to the ground. Her headache was gone. "Well at least the pain is gone."  
  
"Were you able to figure out anymore?"  
  
"Only that something is dying and it's nearby, big, and in great danger." Ranma explained. She turned a dangerous glare on Tirga and Sheila had to grab her shoulder to distracter her.  
  
"Could there be a telepath in danger nearby?"  
  
Tirga blinked a few times at Sheila's question. "Of course! Telepathy! Gaga used to get headaches just like that whenever a large scale battle was going on and he got to close to things."  
  
"So?" Ranma snapped.  
  
"The headache was so bad at times he used to brew up a potion just to dull the pain. He could barely function when it happened."  
  
Thropan nodded. "That's right, I'd forgotten all about those times. After Onoli came along he Gaja rarely went into combat anymore so the headaches faded after a few months."  
  
"Are you saying Ranma is telepathic?" Sheila wondered out loud.  
  
"He might be." Tirga said.  
  
Ranma snorted. "I've never been tele-whatsis in my life. I'm a fighter and will always be one."  
  
"You shouldn't rule it out so quickly Ranma. I think…"  
  
He cut her off. "No, it's ridiculous to even think that I might be. We are in the middle of a full scale battle here and fighting over this is a waste of time."  
  
Refusing to look at her, Ranma turned and started walking up the street. Sheila glanced at the other two. "Ranma, where are you going?"  
  
"To find a way to the Tree."  
  
"We've discussed this."  
  
"I'll go alone if I have to." He yelled back.  
  
"We might as well see what he has in mind Sheila." Thropan said. "I think something is going on here that we don't understand."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"I'm not sure, but my gut feeling is to go along with what he has in mind."  
  
"But the danger…"  
  
Thropan shrugged. "Ranma seems determined to do this for some reason. We help him do what he has to do, then we worry about what happens next, later, when everything is finished."  
  
"But…" Sheila muttered.  
  
"I agree." Tirga said. "I think I understand what Thropan is talking about."  
  
"Explain it to me?"  
  
"No, if I'm wrong I'll sound like a fool." Thropan nodded off to the side.  
  
"You haven't encountered these things before, but you can feel the building tension in the air can't you? That's what I'm talking about, that feeling, and Ranma seems to be connected to it somehow."  
  
"That's stupid!"  
  
"Even so…it's not like we have much of a choice. We can either let him go alone or catch up with him and make sure he survives."  
  
"But…" Sheila muttered.  
  
"Let's go, he's nearly to the end of the street. Can anyone tell where he's headed?" Tirga asked as they jogged after him.  
  
"Isn't the compound in this direction?" Sheila asked.  
  
"What's left of it." Thropan muttered.  
  
"I don't think he would head there. He knows the Compound has been destroyed.  
  
"Ranma wait up!" Sheila yelled.  
  
Ranma stopped and glanced behind him as the three members of the Edge Guard quickly caught up with him. "What?"  
  
"We're going with you." Sheila told him.  
  
"Why? You don't need to and the city needs to be defended. I can do this alone."  
  
"Not without us you can't." Thropan said.  
  
Tirga nodded. "You said you wanted to go up the stairs? To the High Palace?"  
  
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, I have to get up there."  
  
"Well I know a few spells I can teach you, so does Thropan, and we can get you the supplies you need for that fight."  
  
"Besides, it's quite obvious the big battle will be taking place up there. Onoli started that fight, we need to finish it before things go to far."  
  
"What did you have in mind? The sooner I get up there the better." Ranma explained.  
  
"Supplies." Thropan said.  
  
"Where are we going to get those?"  
  
"We have several caches of supplies spread throughout the city for when we needed them." Sheila explained.  
  
"Why haven't we gotten them before this?"  
  
"Well…" Sheila started. "It takes at least two members so the Edge Guard to open the caches. It's a security precaution really."  
  
Shrugging, Ranma glanced at all of them. "Let's go."  
  
About half an hour later they arrived at a door nearly hidden at the back of a dark alley. The first thing Ranma noticed about it was that it didn't have a handle and no visible way to open it. Tirga and Thropan move in front of Ranma and touch the door and for several seconds nothing happens. Just as Ranma is wondering if they even know what they are doing the door clicks and swings inward.  
  
"There we go." Thropan said.  
  
"Sorry it's so slow, but the magic has been around for several hundred years." Tirga explained.  
  
Sheila nodded when Ranma glanced at her.  
  
"Well let's get inside and grab what we need." Tirga told them and headed inside with Thropan close behind.  
  
"It's safe enough." Sheila said as she moved after the.  
  
"MmmMMmmmMM." B yelled from inside Ranma's sub space pocket.  
  
"You ever going to let him out of there?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "He's been annoying me."  
  
"Well yeah, but that's just B and he wasn't really hurting anyone."  
  
"Humph." Ranma muttered as they entered the room. "He went from cute and kind of fun to this annoyance. He's having a little 'time out' for now. I'll let him out when I need him for something."  
  
"He's going to be mad."  
  
Ranma shrugged as he glanced around a room that was little more than a closet, with boxes stacked against the wall, a few barrels, a chest, and a large cabinet of some kind set against the back of the room. Tirga and Thropan were pulling a large box off the top of a pile and lugging it to the floor. Even for werecats with their enhanced strength it appeared to be quite heavy.  
  
"Oh not that thing." Sheila muttered as they sat it on the floor.  
  
"Why not?" Tirga asks.  
  
"Cause, we don't need heavy armor for this."  
  
"I say we do."  
  
"You got armor in there?" Ranma asks as he looks over Sheila's shoulder.  
  
"Yeah, it's what the paladins used to wear before they updated their armor about a hundred years ago."  
  
"So why do you have it here?"  
  
"The armor has protective properties. A lot of the old armors like this are floating around the city, sometimes displayed, though usually stored away like this in an attic."  
  
"I say we use it, the armor can use all the same powers as the current paladins." Tirga muttered.  
  
"Wear it if you want, but we are going to be running up those stairs and I sure won't do that in full armor unless I'm forced to." Ranma said.  
  
Turning around, Thropan walked over to the chest and flipped it open. He pulled out a small pack and tossed it to Ranma. "If we are going to do this, you need to wear some proper clothing. Put that on."  
  
Ranma opened the pack and found nothing but a ball of blackness in the pack, along with a small package. "What's this?"  
  
"It's a mage suit."  
  
"A what?"  
  
"Mage Suit, like what Dr. Diggers wears. We used to keep them around for emergencies. Gaja used to wear one under his robes. You can do the same thing and it will protect you from all kinds of things."  
  
"I'm not sure I need this."  
  
"You need every chance you can get Ranma."  
  
Tirga stopped fiddling with the box, sniffed the air, and suddenly hopped over the door and shut it as quickly and quietly as he could. "Quiet, all of you."  
  
"Wha…" Ranma started, but Sheila shushed him.  
  
Over by a small window Thropan used his dark form to watch from a shadow as the sound of moving feet could be heard. Ranma, a little irritated at being told to be quiet, suddenly understood that they were in danger. He carefully moved over to Thropan and glanced out the window.  
  
Half a dozen zombies, two Undead Knights, and a group of prisoners were moving down the street. Ranma didn't like what he was seeing and had to resist the urge to go out there and save all of them, but none of them were moving to help.  
  
"We have to…" He started.  
  
"Be quiet!" Tirga hissed. "We will help, once we have the advantage and not them."  
  
Ranma shrugged. He agreed with what Tirga for the most part, but didn't think waiting would do them much good. They waited till the procession finished passing by the mouth of the alley. Tirga slowly opened the door and stepped outside and pulled Fire Claw from his belt.  
  
"Lets go."  
  
"Ranma, put the mage suit on." Thropan said. "It's completely black and will help with stealth, though it won't cover those bracers."  
  
"Whatever, how do I put it on?"  
  
"It's magic, just hold it and will it to cover you."  
  
Taking the mage suit Ranma concentrated on it and after a few seconds the black mass turned liquid and flowed around his hand, up his arm, and over his body as if absorbing his current clothing. Ranma stood there for a second as it finished moving and shuddered.  
  
Sheila was gaping at him, blushing slightly.  
  
He shuddered. "That was weird."  
  
"Now picture yourself wearing your regular clothes." Thropan explained.  
  
Nodding, Ranma did just that, in seconds he was back in his long sleeved red shirt, and loose black pants. Ranma noticed instantly that his clothing was a lot cleaner than it had been just a few seconds before, even a little brighter. Thropan just smirked for a second.  
  
"You're a natural Ranma. It took me a week to get my own mage suit to function like that."  
  
He shrugged. "Let's go and help those people."  
  
Sheila shook her head as Ranma turned and walked out of the little room to meet up with Tirga. She noticed that Thropan was giving her a look, a smirk, a hint of amusement, and that he was about to say something.  
  
"Don't even think about it." She snapped and stalked out of the room.  
  
"Whatever you say Kitty Kat."  
  
oooooooooo  
  
Ranma peaked around the wall of the alley to watch the Undead herding their prisoners. From the looks of things he was pretty sure that they were heading right for the base palace. Once they reached it Ranma knew that saving the people would be next to impossible.  
  
There were just too many undead surrounding the place for one person to be effective. Even before he got into this odd situation and met Julia Diggers back in Shangri-la he would have known that much. Not that it would have ever stopped him of course. Now he knew that going in alone wouldn't work and he had to help the others if he wanted to succeed in anyway.  
  
Crouching nest to him, Tirga watched them as well, but Ranma wasn't sure what the weretiger had in mind. "If we do attack them we need to be quick or they'll kill the prisoners in an instant. Then they will get reinforcements."  
  
Ranma frowned at that, but nodded. Each of the prisoners were bound with leg chains to keep them from running, but at least they were still alive. "We need to find away to get rid of those chains. Then everyone can get away on their own while we take care of the undead."  
  
"The Undead Knights need to go down first, once they go the rest will fall easily." Thropan explained.  
  
Ranma nodded. "You guys take out the Undead Knights and I'll free the prisoners."  
  
"Those chains won't just break if you hit them." Tirga snapped.  
  
Ranma shrugged and just grinned. "I have something easier in mind than hitting them till the break." Then he jumped to the roof the building and ran after the group of prisoners.  
  
Turning to Sheila, Tirga gave Sheila a look. "Is he always like that?"  
  
"Not really, but so far today he's been in two large fights, once against Gar and the other against Hanza."  
  
"He fought Gar?" Thropan asked. "And won?"  
  
Sheila nodded.  
  
Thropan looked impressed. "Gar is an Advanced student of Julia 'Brigand' Diggers and Ranma beat him?"  
  
"Remember that Ranma is her student too."  
  
"But Gar has been training for years, I thought Ranma just started."  
  
"No, Ranma's father taught him how to fight. Julia has just been polishing up his techniques a bit."  
  
"Anyone that can beat Gar can defeat a chain." Tirga said, though he looked a little impressed. Come on Sheila, it's time to attack those Knights."  
  
"Plan C?"  
  
"Might as well, it's the most effective against the things."  
  
"I'll handle the zombies." Thropan offered. "Then we all turn on the skeletons."  
  
They all nodded as they walked out of the alley and started running at the back of the group. Tirga spun his mace around as he ran and sent off a pair of large fire balls with a yell. Sheila was right behind him as she pulled out Ice Fang and to sent two blasts of Ice about three seconds behind the fire balls.  
  
The undead Knights went up in flames, their armor turning white hot in less than a second. Then the ice blast hit them and they just appeared to explode in their saddles, taking their horses with them.  
  
"Yeah!" Tirga yelled, still running.  
  
Thropan stopped as soon as the Undead Knights went up in flames, pointed one end of his Nunchaku at the ground near the zombies and whispered a word. With a loud crack, the ground suddenly flowed like water, lifting itself up into the air, and engulfed them, instantly burying them under the street. Above him Ranma jumped off the roof and landed among the prisoners, his hands glowed as he raced among them almost faster than sight.  
  
Their chains just started to fall apart as he passed. Freed they all turned and ran away from the scene heading in different directions. As the last one ran away Ranma came to a stop several yards away from the skeletons, took a stance with his legs spread apart and his arms crossed at the forearms, and started to glow.  
  
Tirga, Sheila, and Thropan all launched attacks into the skeletons just as Ranma threw his to the sides in a slashing motion. All four attacks slammed into the group and annihilated it from existence. The whole thing took less than ten seconds from the initial attack to the where skeletons clattered to the ground in burning pieces of charred bone or shattered from being flash frozen.  
  
Ranma slowly relaxed and looked to see if anything was still moving when he gasped and grabbed his head. The pain from before was back with a vengeance and he nearly fell over as he staggered. Sheila rushed over to him.  
  
"Ranma, the pain is back?"  
  
"Yeah." He hissed through his clenched teeth. "Worse than before."  
  
"Any idea what's causing it this time?"  
  
"No, it's to overwhelming to even grasp. Just lots and lots of pain."  
  
Thropan walked over. "Ranma you need to meditate to control this, if you don't you're going to be useless to us."  
  
"I'll get it under control." Ranma snapped as sweat started to bead along his forehead.  
  
Looking worried, Sheila could only watch as Ranma started to mutter something under his breath and his face relaxed. He slowly stood up straight and opened his eyes, they were a little blank, but that was a sign that he was in a deep meditative trance.  
  
"You better?"  
  
"Yes." He said. "I should be fine for a while. I just need to figure out why I'm in pain, then get rid of it."  
  
"We explained earlier…" Thropan started.  
  
Ranma cut him off. "True, but I can tell that it's only part of the problem. There is something causing it happen now and I need to get rid of whatever it is."  
  
"Can you describe it?"  
  
"Kind of like a giant unfocused feeling of pain." Ranma said. "That's about the only way I can describe it.  
  
"That doesn't help much." Tirga muttered.  
  
"Yeah, yeah."  
  
"We'll figure it out Ranma." Shelia said as she hugged him suddenly.  
  
"I know one thing though, it has something to do with the Tree."  
  
"The Tree again?" Thropan asks.  
  
Nodding, Ranma points to the top. "That thing."  
  
"We still can't get into the base palace Ranma." Tirga points out.  
  
"I know, but there has to be another way to get to those stairs besides going through the undead army."  
  
They stopped as someone stepped out of a nearby building and descended a short flight of stairs slowly. Ranma could tell that it was an old man, he was wearing a white dogi edged in gold, had long brown hair tied back in a pony tail, and a gleam in his eye.  
  
"I might be able to help you there lad."  
  
Sheila, Tirga, and Thropan all gasped.  
  
"Master Leep." Thropan said simply.  
  
"So what, never heard of ya and we're busy so go away." Ranma snaps.  
  
"Ranma!" Sheila yells and punches him in the arm. "That's Master Leep! One of the greatest fighters on Jade."  
  
Ranma snorts. "So what?"  
  
"RANMA!"  
  
"Listen to that!" Thropan yelled and started hopping up and down.  
  
All around the sounds of the city started to change as the sounds of battle filled the air. Master Leep smirked at them. "I brought along my students when I heard about what was happening here."  
  
"How many?" Tirga asked.  
  
"Eighty six students and five hundred of their friends should be sweeping across the city as we speak."  
  
Tirga grinned. "That's great! What about the base palace? Is it going to be freed too?"  
  
"Yep, the husband of my greatest student called in a favor to get this set in motion. We should be done in a few hours."  
  
"We need to get up to the High Palace." Ranma explained.  
  
Leep just nodded. "We should free it soon. My students are some of the best fighters in area and can take out any of these things. As for the Tree and those stairs…"  
  
A blue haired girl dressed in a skimpy ninja outfit suddenly dropped from the air and landed next to Master Leep. "Master, forty percent of the city is ours, the surviving paladins need just a little push to get everything set in motion."  
  
"Excellent Carla, is the Library still intact."  
  
"Yes Master."  
  
"Good, I'll be there in a few minutes."  
  
Carla nodded, glanced at the group just as she jumped to a nearby roof and vanished from sight."  
  
"The library sir?" Tirga muttered.  
  
"What you need is there." He intoned.  
  
Ranma could feel the old guy's aura and knew he was quite a fighter, but something about the guy just felt off. Shrugging, he watched as the old guy started to move down the street a lot faster than most of them could walk. Just a few minutes later they reached a large building nearly hidden among some trees. Ranma also spotted several half naked girls hidden in the trees, a couple standing guard by the doors, and more on the roof.  
  
"What's with all the girls?"  
  
"They are my students." Leep explained.  
  
"Where are the guys?"  
  
Sheila coughed as Tirga burst out laughing. "Ranma, Master Leep…"  
  
"I can answer myself." Leep snapped. "I will only train women who can't learn anywhere else, or who have learned to ignore the most dangerous of training regimes."  
  
Ranma looked confused.  
  
"Who wants to train an ugly sweaty man when I can have a good looking sweaty woman as my opponent instead?" Leep explained.  
  
"You're a pervert."  
  
"Yep."  
  
Ranma fell over. He decided then and there that the old man would never learn about the curse. Never.  
  
Once inside the Library Ranma witnessed something that would haunt him for the rest of the year.  
  
"Stealth Goose!" Leep yelled as he literally goosed one of his students as they passed a desk.  
  
She squealed and jumped at least a foot, landed with a curse, and tried to remove Leep's head with a nasty looking pole arm. Instead of ducking, Leep just laughed, caught the blade with his thumb and forefinger, and gave the girl smirk. "Told you to pay attention T'illa."  
  
"You…you…&$##$"  
  
He goosed her again, this time Ranma didn't even see it. One second he was in front of her and the next he was getting a good feel. T'illa's long green hair literally stood on end as she squealed even louder.  
  
"AGHAAAA!"  
  
"Back to what you were doing girl, and remember, pay attention or next time I'll get an even better feel." He leered at her.  
  
Sheila suddenly stepped behind Ranma, as if she was hiding in case Leep decided to goose her as well. The old man didn't say anything about it as he led them deeper into the library shelves. Ranma wasn't sure where they were, the inside of the building was about five times bigger on the inside than the outside.  
  
After several minutes of walking they reached an old section of the library, this one covered in dust and unused for some time. Master Leep pointed to a book case set against the back wall. "There's we need."  
  
"A book?"  
  
"Not quite."  
  
"I don't understand." Tirga muttered.  
  
"When the Hamlet was being set up originally, the Tree was obviously the focus point of he whole place. It was only logical that the Mages would set up some place in the tree. Until then this library was the original governing body in the hamlet."  
  
Ranma shrugged and Leep glared at him for a second.  
  
"Well after the Base Palace was under construction and the stairs that led up to the High Palace were nearly finished, they needed some way to get up to the Tree that was a little quicker. That way has been hidden for some time, but when my grandfather was a on the council over five hundred years ago he used this to get up to the High Palace."  
  
Walking over to the book case, Master Leep ran his finger across the books until he found a small one, nearly black with age. He pulled it out, held it up for them to see, then put it back and touched the spine. "Clavicam."  
  
The book suddenly started to shine like a star and a series of lines started to form on the floor beneath them. Ranma gaped at the lines and realized that they were made of pure magic. The lines twisted and about the floor until all of them were encircled except for Master Leep.  
  
"Since I activated the access way, I can't go with you. It's a kind of security measure. One person has to be touching the book for it to work. Now… 'Oooshioff!'  
  
oooooooooo  
  
Ranma blinked suddenly as all four of them were surrounded by pillars of light and he felt a shifting sensation. In the next instant the world came into view and he gasped and stepped back in shock. All of them were standing near the edge of the stairs as they spiraled down below them. A slight breeze swirled around them as the magic finally settled down and they were able to get their first look at their surroundings.  
  
Along with the slight breeze, they noticed that lightning was flaring across the sky. The rumble of almost continuous thunder also filled the air. Some distance away they could see the walls High Palace, it's surrounding walls, and the large undead dragon slamming a large claw into a magical barrier.  
  
Ranma and Sheila gaped at the thing for several seconds.  
  
"A Dracolich!" Thropan gasped. "Its supposed to be impossible for one of them to even get close to the city."  
  
"Impossible?" Ranma asked.  
  
"They're used to be a large number of undead dragons around this area of the world. As Seer's Hamlet grew in size the Council made a deal with the Conclave of Mages and set up a barrier that was supposed to keep the things out of the city."  
  
"Look over there." Tirga whispered to them and pointed off to the right, about a hundred yards away.  
  
"That's Julia and G'nolga, their fights are legendary. Look at them go." Thropan gasped in awe. "Its rare to see two skilled opponents like this fighting each other. Look at the damage they are doing to ground around them."  
  
"I can barely see them move, the darkness isn't helping, but even then they are just a blur of movement."  
  
"Remember how they nearly killed each other at the Tournament of Arms." Tirga reminded them.  
  
"We didn't see it, remember we were dealing with that moron Tyrant and his group."  
  
"True, but someone made a magical recording of it. Quite a fight, those two just can't back down from each other. Every time they meet one of them ends up going to a healer, usually both of them."  
  
"I'd like to see that sometime." Thropan said.  
  
"Julia can handle her." Ranma said. "We need to do something about saving the people in the Palace while she keeps the Dwarf occupied. That shield can't hold for long."  
  
"Let me check something first." Thropan said as he walked over to one of the walls along either side of the stairs and tapped it. A map slowly formed in the air right in front of the wall with a number of moving dots. "It looks like we have visitors coming up the stairs."  
  
"How many?" Tirga asked, instantly taking a business like attitude.  
  
"One second… it looks like nearly two hundred undead are on the move."  
  
"We need to stop them from reaching the top, if we don't, G'nolga will win."  
  
Ranma walked over and glanced at the map before pointing at the stairs leading away from them. "Blow away this section of stairs."  
  
"DO YOU HAVE ANY KIND OF IDEA THE TROUBLE THAT WOULD CAUSE?!" Tirga yelled. "We can't do it!"  
  
"Not every step, just this section for about two hundred steps down." Ranma explained. It will be too far to jump and make it hard for them to climb over on a rope. Me and the old man ran across something like this one the road once."  
  
Pointing at the map again Thropan pointed at several dots moving up behind the undead soldiers. "These twenty dots seem to be attacking the undead from behind Ranma. We may not have to worry about to many of them reaching us and if they do we can make quick work out of them."  
  
"One of us will have to stay here and watch out for them though." Sheila pointed out. "I'm not sure if I want to do that or not."  
  
"I'll do it since I can use the map." Thropan volunteered with a shrug. "I have several weapons I want to test on willing targets."  
  
"What about Julia and Dracolich?" Tirga asked.  
  
"Remember what Onoli always tells us." Sheila said. "Take every situation one step at a time."  
  
"Do the easiest first then. That way we can all work on the hard one together. We help Julia fight G'nolga."  
  
Reaching into his subspace pocket, Ranma pulled B out of storage and glared at the little robot. "B."  
  
"Oh, so now you come crawling back to me." B muttered.  
  
"I have a job for you."  
  
"I won't do it."  
  
"You will or I'll drop kick you off the Tree."  
  
B sweatdropped. "What you got?"  
  
"I need you to look around the area over by the High Palace over there." Ranma explained as he held the around to he could see.  
  
"Over by the big scary monster. Right." B dead panned.  
  
"Exactly, you're small so he won't notice you. Scout around and try and find us a way to defeat that thing or get into the Palace."  
  
Frowning, the little bot didn't say anything for a second, then it nodded. "No problem, it's the first useful things I've had to do since we arrived. Right Ranko?."  
  
"Why you…" Ranma growled.  
  
B hooted as he raced off before Ranma could do anything.  
  
"That thing…"  
  
"It can be fun at times, but at the moment we have to be careful and he's our best shot at defeating that thing." Ranma explained.  
  
"Before we go Ranma, we need to keep the element of surprise here so you need to change your clothing back into the mage suit. It will help you blend into the shadows."  
  
It sounded like a good idea, so Ranma concentrated and his clothing blurred for a second. As the effect vanished he stood before them in his skin tight black mage suit as it clung to every curve and bulge of his body. "This thing may be useful, but I don't see why it has to be skin tight."  
  
"Gah…" Sheila gaped at him. Ranma didn't appear to really notice as he twisted around trying to see if there were any muscles not defined by the mage suit. He was grateful that it didn't conform to his privates though. It must have been designed into the suit.  
  
Tirga nodded and his own clothing suddenly lost their color and shrank down a bit and turned black as well. "You can have it look how you want, so long as it's black so that we can hide in the shadows."  
  
Ranma concentrated again and the suit flared out a bit and the suit altered into a black version of his usual clothing, sleeveless shirt, and loose pants. "Much better."  
  
Sheila didn't bother, she was still wearing the black spandex outfit she borrowed from Britanny. So she could already blend in as well as they could. "We need to be careful with G'nolga, she can be tricky."  
  
"Good luck Thropan, call any of us if you need any help." Ranma told him, then turned to the others.  
  
"I got it covered." The werepanther said with a smirk. He already had several ideas in mind that would keep the undead jerks from ever getting near the top of the stairs.  
  
Ranma crouched down and jumped out of the lighted area and into the darkness just beyond safe area and dashed into the shadows, vanishing from sight instantly. He quickly his way over to where Julia and G'nolga were fighting a savage battle. He didn't know it, but both women were well aware that he was heading their way.  
  
Once he got to a spot where he could see both women, he stopped and knelt down about ten yards from the fight so that he wouldn't accidentally get in their way. A few seconds later Tirga and Sheila joined him as they appeared to step out of the shadows around him. "What do you think we should do the fight, just attack G'nolga and lend a hand?"  
  
"No, that has never worked on G'nolga. She's too experienced. Can you cast a spell at her?"  
  
He shrugged. "Probably."  
  
"Well we need to stop her, so how about that fireball spell you used earlier?" Sheila suggested.  
  
"Maybe." Ranma muttered. "I'm actually not sure I should interfere in the fight now that I'm here."  
  
"Damn it Ranma, we don't have time for this." Tirga growled. "Everyone's lives are at stake here, we need to stop this now. I'm not good enough to fight G'nolga, you claim you can, so get out there and do it."  
  
"Tirga!" Sheila hissed. "Don't be like that."  
  
"Well?" He snarled and ignored Sheila completely.  
  
"Fine." Ranma snapped. "Get ready in case me and Julia have any problems."  
  
As they nodded, Ranma stretched himself out on the ground and uses his fingers and toes to snake his way across the ground, weaving between a couple of branches that appeared in his path. He stopped for an instant just as a large bolt of lightning lights up the sky. The barrier around the Hamlet was still intact and slowly repairing itself, but it was still quite unstable.  
  
Ranma ignored that as he got closer and closer to the savage battle taking place in front of him. Even for ten yards away he could see that both of them were covered in cuts and bruises. He'd never seen G'nolga in an actual fight before and Ranma was a bit daunted as he realized that the dwarf really was almost as good as Julia.  
  
He gulped in worry. Then he moved to get into attack position…  
  
"Moron." G'nolga snapped. Her hand suddenly changed from a block to pointing right at him.  
  
"Ah crap." Ranma gasped as he barely dodged something as it sailed past his ear and ripped out a couple of hairs. He dropped to the ground and rolled before he had time to think about it. He came to his feet and nearly fell of the branch of the tree, but managed to catch his footing a second later.  
  
"Ranma, stop playing around in the dark!" Julia yelled. "G'nolga is mine!"  
  
"But I can help!"  
  
"I've got it covered!" Julia snapped. "Now let me finish this…"  
  
The two women blurred from sight once more and Ranma gaped as G'nolga's head suddenly twisted to the side, then in one unseen motion, Julia lifted the dwarf off the ground and body slammed her into the ground. Something glowing fell out of G'nolga's shirt.  
  
Julia reached down, saw that it was a necklace, and ripped it off her before the dwarf could stop her. The instant it was gone G'nolga cried out in pain and convulsed before collapsing unconscious at Julia's feet. The necklace stopped glowing a few seconds later and Julia glanced at it. She didn't recognize it, but she wasn't an n expert on magical items. She quickly stuffed it in her pocket.  
  
She turned to glare at Ranma. She was angry with him for even thinking of interfering in her fight. "What are you doing up here?"  
  
"Came to help, the rest of the city is in chaos down below us."  
  
"I know that. Why are you here?"  
  
"Because I have to be." Ranma snapped.  
  
She gave him a confused look. "You aren't anywhere near ready to take on something like this, student."  
  
He winced. "Still, I can help out."  
  
"Mrs. Brigand." Tirga said as he and Sheila walked out of the shadows behind Ranma. "Hello."  
  
"Tirga, Sheila, I'm surprised to see you up here as well. Where are the others?"  
  
"Thropan is at the stairs making sure no undead make it up the stairs. Gar and Onoli are both to injured to fight."  
  
"What else is happening down below?"  
  
"Master Leep brought his students and a few of their friends, they've been routing then undead for the last hour or so."  
  
"You're kidding, right?" Julia asked. Master Leep hadn't left his training grounds in twenty years. "Why would he even bother to come?"  
  
"He mentioned something about a favor." Ranma said.  
  
"To who?"  
  
"Didn't say."  
  
"We could use his help now more than ever." Julia sighed. "We have two fights left I think. The Dracolich and Rook."  
  
"Rook?"  
  
Julia nodded. "Yeah, he's behind this whole thing. We have to stop him before he is able to complete a spell he's working on. Even worse, he seems to have changed recently."  
  
"How so?" Sheila asked. She recalled defeating Rook easily the one time they fought.  
  
"He's not acting like a fool for one thing. He had G'nolga attack me while that Dracolich over there started to try and take down that shield around the Palace. Normally he would just try and take care of things himself while letting others entertain him."  
  
"Tsk tsk, and to think I knew you would defeat G'nolga."  
  
They all turned to watch as a black armored form walked out of the shadows around them, his cape edge dragging heavily along the ground behind him. He was decked out in head to toe in black full plate armor with a helmet that hid his features completely except for a set of glowing yellow eyes. They could actually feel a massive amount of magic swirling around him as he came towards them.  
  
Rook came to a stop several yards away to look them over for a second and let a bit of is power flare up. "Every step of this fight has been planned out in meticulous detail, my dear Julia. Do you think I didn't take such a simple thing into account? I have plans and counter plans set in motion to take care of anything you 'heroes' might even think to throw at me." He gloated.  
  
"Rook, this is the last time you will ever endanger the lives of these people. Seer's Hamlet has had enough evil to last it a thousand years and you just waltz in and make things worse? No more you undead monster."  
  
Chuckling darkly, Rook glared at them in a way that gave them the willies. "I've already won, everything is in place and it's only a matter of time before the final piece falls and I achieve my goals. There isn't a think you can do to stop me."  
  
"I've heard enough of this." Julia growled as she raised her sword.  
  
Both Tirga and Sheila copied her as they readied their weapons as well and tried to think of the fastest way to take the monster down. Ranma frowned a little, he could feel something stirring in the air around them, but he couldn't figure out what it was. He folded his arms and glared at the man that set all this in motion.  
  
It was quite obvious that Rook was to confident and he wondered if what he said was true. Ranma really hoped it was a bluff, but he'd been in to many fights recently to completely blow this guy off as a nobody. Daishi had taught him several valuable lessons about underestimating opponents. Even if his father would have laughed at this guy for dressing like a pompous ass he wouldn't have underestimated the guy.  
  
He suddenly winced as he felt another spike of pain in stab right into his brain. Ignoring it as best that he could, he could tell that Sheila had noticed and gave him a worried look. There was something seriously wrong here but he just couldn't' figure out what it was. He was pretty sure that it was obvious if he only saw whatever it was. Gritting his teeth, he prepared to slam the armored jerk to the ground.  
  
Julia suddenly shot forward and attempted to remove Rook's head with a savage swing of her sword. For just a second, Ranma was surprised that Julia was going for an instant killing blow, but then he noticed Rook's stance change just slightly. His gauntlet moved to catch her blade while the other moved back and punched her in the stomach.  
  
She collapsed to the ground coughing and he kicked her in the chin to send her sprawling. Her reflexes were as fast as ever and with a simple roll she was back on her feet. She turned toward him with a snarl. "No trick armor this time?"  
  
Rook laughed lightly. "Please Julia, even you should know by now that I'm not at all like the man I used to be. I'm not dependent on the magic of my armor anymore. I learned that lesson from you after you embedded me in that wall. I've taken the time to remember some of my old training and trained myself to be a fighter again."  
  
Still holding onto Julia's blade, he casually tossed it out into the night sky and let it fall into the city below. Julia cursed as she watched the blade fall. Then he straightened up and let his cape ripple around him as he looked at the red headed woman. "I seem to have seriously underestimated you Julia, I expected better. Maybe fighting G'nolga just wore you out?"  
  
"You don't actually think that will stop me do you? G'nolga has hit me harder than that hundreds of times."  
  
"Why take all the fun out of a good fight by beating everyone in half a second?" Rook asked mildly. "Might as well place a throne on a rock in the middle of nowhere and sit down. How boring."  
  
A few feet away, Ranma could feel the pain right behind his eyes now and it kept building no matter how hard he tried to calm his mind. He could barely think as sweat broke out on his forehead and tried to keep an eye on the beginning of the fight. He still watched Rook though, he wouldn't be caught flat footed by a guy like him. Even his father wouldn't fall for that when it counted.  
  
"Ice Kapowie!" Sheila screamed and launched her attack. As it flew off the edge of her magic blade, Sheila hoped it would be enough of a distraction to allow Julia to get in a good hit. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw that Tirga was also getting ready to release his own attack.  
  
Holding up his hand, Rook used his hand to defect the magical energy and sent it flying up over his head where it slammed into a some low hanging branches about ten feet above them. Instantly encasing it in a thick layer of Ice and frost. Ranma felt the blood in his veins turn to ice for several seconds.  
  
At the same time Tirga launched a 'Fire Claw', not at Rook, but towards the wood at the monster's feet instead. Rook reacted like any soldier by jumping back, but his armor allowed him to jump about fifteen feet in the air as he hopped backwards, easily clearing the magic attack. The saw his eyes flare even before he landed.  
  
By the time he landed red lightning arched around his hand and he fired a couple of powerful blasts at the two Edge Guard members, but they easily dodged. Ranma wasn't in the line of fire, so he didn't have to dodge anything. He was in to much pain to even try. Julia used the distraction to get out of the way as well and moved over to Ranma. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Massive headache, I don't know why." He explained.  
  
"Fight past the pain." She snapped. "This isn't' the time for something like this to sideline you."  
  
He growled. "I know that, but the meditation trick I know isn't working like it did last time."  
  
"Ignore the pain, student, or else."  
  
He glared at her for a second before nodding. "Fine."  
  
Straightening up, he relaxed a little as he held his hand toward Rook as a blue aura formed around him for just a split second. It ruffled his clothing and hair as his eyes lit up with magic. "Gust."  
  
The word echoed in the air for just a heartbeat before the very air around Ranma fired off like a cannon shot. Leaves were suddenly ripped from branches as the wind swirled around Ranma and hurled towards it's target with a vengeance. Rook barely had time to throw up any kind of defense as it slammed into him.  
  
Wearing a cape at that moment nearly cost him everything as the wind grabbed it and nearly tossed him into the air. He yelled out as he slammed his finger down into the wood of the tree and held on with ever thing he had. Tirga and Sheila dove to the ground and tried to hold onto something as well as the wind tried to rip the clothing from their bodies.  
  
Julia just turned into the wind and mostly ignored for the thirty seconds it lasted, all she had to do was plant her feet in just the right way. Then Rook's cape ripped away from his armor and sailed into the blackness around them and he was able to ride out the rest of the spell with little harm. At the same time the frozen leaves and branches above Rook shattered under the force of the wind and crashed down on him just as the wind died off. Ranma lowered his arm and sighed as the pain came back, nearly knocking him to his knees.  
  
"Damn." He muttered.  
  
"Good try." Julia said. "He will go down, no matter what we have to do."  
  
Rook started laughing loudly as he sat on the ground and let the bit of ice fall off him. "Do you think that first level spells are going to bring me down?!"  
  
"I know for a…" Ranma started to snarl.  
  
"You don't stand a chance!" Rook screamed and pointed to the sky where the magical barrier was still covered in red lightning. "It is time!"  
  
The Dracolich roared in the background as the barrier around the High Palace collapsed with a barely heard 'pop' the very air around them changed. As the roar died started to trail off they all watched as the Dracolich brought its head back around and fired off it's breath weapon through the roof of the Palace.  
  
"No!" Julia screamed.  
  
"S#!&#!" Tirga yelled. "The Dracolich!"  
  
Sheila could only gape as she watched in fascinated horror as the Dracolich launched it's attack on the helpless Palace. She'd never seen anything like it before. Grayish black smoke issued from the thing's mouth, but it moved as if it had a mind of it's own. Filling the four levels Palace in a matter of seconds.  
  
In an instant every living soul in the Palace was dead as the poisonous gas billowed from every window and crack in the building. The few guards that managed to make it out of the building collapsed dead seconds after the smoke flossed over them. Even worse, Ranma could feel the growing aura of death as the smoke slowly vanished.  
  
Rook laughed. "Excellent!"  
  
Ranma shuddered as he felt the living beings inside the building die in such a horrible way. He didn't even stop to think about how he knew what he did, or how he even felt it in the first place.  
  
"FIREBALL!" He screamed and fired off a powerful one just as everything around them started to glow.  
  
Rook ignored the fireball flying at him as he held both hands in the air and started to glow with power. "The sacrifices are complete, the gates are nearly open, now is the time for the next step!"  
  
A gigantic bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck Rook. Thunder rolled across the city nearly deafening everyone, and Ranma's fireball just flared a bright red and vanished from existence less than ten feet from where Rook was standing. He stood there crackling with power as a feeling of power filled the air.  
  
"I've done it." Rook yelled.  
  
"I wish Theo was here." Julia muttered. "He knows magic and could give us some idea what just happened."  
  
"A Pact." Tirga said as he walked up, his clothing in taters. "He's made some kind of evil pack with something."  
  
"How?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Seen something like it before, though on a much smaller scale than this whole set up. Usually the bigger the sacrifice the more power the individual gets, so long as they do what they are told."  
  
"He's still a wimp."  
  
"No matter how strong he is defeating a magic user is usually pretty easy." Julia said and shrugged.  
  
Tirga gaped at them.  
  
Looking a little nervous, Sheila walked over and stood next to Ranma as they watched Rook. "This is not good. What do we do now?"  
  
"We fight." Ranma said.  
  
The Tree started to shake, as if an earthquake was going on and Ranma staggered as a burst of pain behind his eyes dropped him to his knees. Grabbing his head he fell over and started to shake. Sheila ran over to him looking panicked.  
  
Julia looked a little concerned as she knelt down beside him. "Ranma, describe what you're feeling."  
  
"Describe it?" He snapped. "It's like my brain is being set on fire!"  
  
"Mrs. Diggers, Thropan and I were talking to Ranma abut this earlier and we thought it might be some kind of latent Telepathic abilities of his. Something he didn't know about."  
  
"I've encountered those before, but never anything that caused this kind of pain. The most I've seen happen is a migraine headache. A good nights sleep and they would be back to normal."  
  
"Ranma has been pushing himself since he got here." Sheila said.  
  
Rolling into a sitting position, Ranma took a deep pain filled breath, and reached into his sub space pocket to pull out a book. Julia noticed that it was beginners spell book given him a few days before he came to Jade. He held his hand up and formed a ball of glowing energy that lit the pages enough for him to read.  
  
"What are you looking for Ranma?" Tirga asked.  
  
"Need…blocking spell." Ranma said between clenched teeth. "Need to block the pain."  
  
"A blocking spell doesn't work like that." Tirga said.  
  
"It does."  
  
Ranma stopped near the end of the book and quickly read through the spell he wanted. Nothing about it mentioned that it had any limitations, so he just figured Tirga didn't know any better. Closing his eyes he pictured the spell pattern in his head and magical energy flared around his body for a second. The pain instantly started to recede and he sighed in relief as he got to his feet and put the book away.  
  
Tirga gaped at him. "The spell…"  
  
"Works." Ranma snapped. "Worry about what it should and shouldn't do later. Where's Rook?"  
  
"He walked over to the Palace while you were casting your spell, he didn't seem to even care that we were here." Sheila explained.  
  
"B!" Ranma yelled out. "Where are you?!"  
  
"B?" Julia asked.  
  
"A Peebo that Brianna gave to Ranma before he came here." Sheila said. "It's supposed to be guarding Ranma, but so far it's done very little of that."  
  
After a couple of minutes B didn't show up Ranma shrugged. "He may be busy or can't get out here for some reason."  
  
"Remember he was looking for a way into the palace and that Dracolich was over there."  
  
"He should be alright. We just need to find him and see if he spotted any weak spots on the Dracolich."  
  
Over by the palace the Dracolich was crouched down next to the building, glowing slightly. It seemed to be looking in their direction. Ranma considered the beast and wondered for a second why the human undead were nearly useless while a monster like this made everyone fear for their lives.  
  
"That thing is just an overgrown skeleton." Ranma snapped. "Break him into little pieces and scatter the pieces."  
  
"Don't be a moron!" Tirga snapped. "Dracoliches like that are a thousand times more dangerous than a regular skeleton. It's a Lich, not a skeleton, and that means that it's a magic using undead monster and completely sentient!"  
  
"He's right Ranma, a Lich can easily survive being broken into pieces. Their souls aren't even apart of their bodies, but kept elsewhere. It gives them a kind of immortality. The broken pieces would just reform eventually."  
  
"There is also the Fear." Tirga reminded them and ran his hand through his hair nervously. "Get within a hundred feet of one and its aura will scare you so bad you wet yourself. It even controls it consciously, so it can move about undetected if it wants."  
  
"Rook needs time to do something else, no matter what he's been boasting about." Julia said. "Otherwise he would have just killed us a little while ago. That whole fight was just to waste time and keep us occupied."  
  
"Well let's get in there and see what he's up to." Ranma said. "I still don't think that Dracowhatsis is going to be a problem. Also, someone is coming."  
  
Ranma turned and looked behind them as several forms walked out of the darkness with Thropan in the lead. A group of dwarves broke off to go and chain G'nolga up while the others quickly formed a circle around the group. Thropan just grinned as half a dozen paladins came to attention a few feet away. Their once red armor was now covered in substances better left unsaid, but they were still willing to fight.  
  
Their commander walked over to them and took his helmet off to reveal the face of a grizzly old soldier with a thick mustache. He saluted Julia. "Hello all, Armsmaster, sorry we're so late. Had to fight our way through a small army of undead on the way up here."  
  
"Perfectly alright Commander." Julia said. "How is the lower palace faring?"  
  
"We have most of the building taken back, but the Undead army is still sitting outside the gates waiting for their orders. I'm not sure how long they will wait before they begin to think something is wrong though. We don't think they will move until given orders, but the undead are hard to predict at times. Also, eighty percent of the city is back in hour control with Master Leep's students taking a hand in the clean up according to my last check a few minutes ago."  
  
"The undead aren't putting up much of a fight?" Tirga asked.  
  
"Whoever has been controlling them isn't giving orders anymore, so it allows us to get in close enough to destroy them easily. Though the Undead Knights seem to be trying to rally them for something. We just haven't been able to figure out what it could be. Those girls Leep brought with him are kicking the $#! out of them every time they even get anything started."  
  
Julia nodded, it sounded just like what Master Leep would have done with his students. "How many of the citizens were converted?"  
  
"Well around two thousand or so, we haven't been able to do an accurate count yet. It's mostly old men and women so far, those that couldn't fight back effectively or those rare fighters that were stupid enough to attack large groups of undead by themselves."  
  
"Have they started to attack Healers yet?"  
  
"No ma'am, the protective magic's around the healer's houses and clinics are keeping them at bay so far."  
  
"Anything else to report?"  
  
"No ma'am."  
  
"Then let your men get a little rest while they can. We have a hell of a fight coming up and I want them as rested as possible within the next hour or so. Eat some food, get something to drink, do what you need to do."  
  
"We have some Fatigue spells built into our armor, Armsmaster. We aren't allowed to use them unless we are under orders. Can I have your permission?"  
  
"Yep, get everyone some food and drink as well, this is going to be a very dangerous battle." Julia commanded him. As an Armsmaster of the Realm she had a duty to take charge when she needed to.  
  
He nodded, spun around, and walked back over to his men yelling orders and quickly getting them organized into several smaller groups.  
  
Off to the side of the main Ashaton Chaos finally arrived from his long climb up the stairs and ended up jumping out of the Commander's way. From the looks of Ashaton's clothing things hadn't gone well after he left them earlier. He called out to Ranma and Sheila as he jogged over. "Hey guys."  
  
"Ashaton." Shelia said. "What are you doing up here?"  
  
He grinned sheepishly. "Can you believe I got drafted? That old paladin just grabbed me off the street and threatened to disembowel me if I didn't do what he said. Kind of rough way to enter military life, but since he was taking 'volunteers' for this battle, I decided it would best if I came along. Then the jerks nearly left me behind while running up the stairs, I barely got to fight at all."  
  
Tirga smirked at him. "Glad to have you around anyway, we need all the help we can get at the moment."  
  
"YOU!" The Paladin commander yelled in Ashaton's ear as he dragged him off towards a group of paladins sitting on a large branch near the stairs. "Come with me you slacker!"  
  
"Guys, we are going to need to use the special magic built into your weapons." Thropan said as he walked over. "I know it's dangerous, but I simply don't see any choice now that Onoli is out of commission. We can't depend on Onoli's extra power this time so we'll have to use every advantage we have to win this"  
  
"You mean that power that amplifies our weapons magic?" Tirga asked. "The one you told us could very cause our weapons to blow up in our faces and kill us in the process?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Good, I've always wanted to see what Fire Claw could really do."  
  
Thropan laughed. "Here, let me see your weapon for a second, I need to cast a couple of spells on it to release the safeties. Sheila give me yours too."  
  
He moved off to the side and sat down with the weapons at his feet and stepping on the crushed remains of leaves. Then he pulled out some scrolls and started to cast some spells on them under his breath, touching each weapon as he went. After each spell was cast the weapon would glow a little brighter and brighter as the magic built into them tried to stabilize the power levels.  
  
Ranma watched for a few seconds and noticed that he could actually feel the weapons releasing some hidden strength. He shook his head and strengthened that blocking spell he'd just cast a few minutes before and turned back to studying the Dracolich. "Something isn't right, but I just can't put my finger on it." He muttered just loud enough for Sheila to hear.  
  
"What was that?" Sheila asked.  
  
"Something isn't right and it's right in front of me. My old man used to play games on me like this all the time. Mind games where even the obvious solution was a feint used to misdirect a person from the real goal. I've never been good at them."  
  
"You'll figure it out."  
  
"Maybe, I used to get lucky every now and then and accidentally figure out what was going on. I've never been able to figure it out from just watching the things going on around me. Pop always got mad at me for being to dense." Ranma explained.  
  
Julia and Tirga both glanced at him. "Do you think it may have something to do with what was causing you that pain earlier?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "No, this feels like one of the traps my old man used to set up to train me in some very dangerous forms of the Art."  
  
"It may be important so try and figure it out." Julia told him.  
  
He shrugged. "Like I said, I'm bad at figuring these things out, but I'll give it a try."  
  
"Just what makes you think something is going on?" Tirga asked in a way that made Sheila glare at him.  
  
Ranma ignored the tone of voice as he answered. "Rook was to willing to give away information, G'nolga went down way too easily, and That Dracolich is just sitting there for no reason when it could easily have breathed that poison gas on all of us. About how easily that shield around the palace went down and how all these Undead are so easy to beat in a fight."  
  
Thropan was nodding by the time Ranma finished his explaining his thoughts. "I agree, things have been way too easy. Even I noticed that."  
  
After several seconds Julia nodded as well. "He did say that he had plans in place for anything we might try."  
  
"What about taking the time to gather more forces up here. It'll only take an hour or to and we can every fighter in the city up her for the next leg of the fight." Tirga suggested.  
  
"I'm not sure we have that long to wait." Julia said as she looked over that the Palace. He's inside and ever minute that passes gives him more time to pull off his plan."  
  
Behind them several dwarves ran by with G'nolga trussed up in chains from head to foot, carrying her on their shoulders, heading for the stairs. The rest started to assemble at the top of the stairs leading down from the soon to be battle ground. It was quite obvious that they didn't plan to stick around for the battle.  
  
Julia watched them for a few minutes and wondered what would happen to her rival now that she was back with the dwarves. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the amulet she took from G'nolga earlier. She turned to the dwarf issuing orders. "Here, this may help her a little."  
  
He glanced at her from under his hood. "What you got there?"  
  
"Rook was controlling her with this necklace. Once we got it off her she collapsed and hasn't been awake since. I think it possessed her in some way. It may help clear her name a little since I know she would never pull something like this off under normal circumstances."  
  
Another dwarf jogged over and took a close look at the item. "Aye lass, tis a dangerous object you have there. They used to be dead common in the dark days, back before the first Armsmaster appeared. That there is a control stone."  
  
Julia gaped at the thing. "This is a slaver stone?"  
  
"Aye, it is. Combine that with the right spells, some mental conditioning, and you can control even a god with that thing."  
  
"Then G'nolga isn't at fault."  
  
"It may help save her honor, but she's a dark soul, she was to willing to accept what happened to her. Even the legends say that these were never very effective on the really strong willed fighters. Yet G'nolga did all this?"  
  
"Here, take it with you and try use it to at least help her case."  
  
The lead dwarf nodded and took the object and carefully place it in a pouch at his side. "The road home will be long."  
  
"Will you stay around to help us?"  
  
"Nay! The sooner we are away from here the better. There is death in the air tonight and I want no part of it." The Dwarf snarled and gripped his special crossbow a little tighter as the other Dwarf spoke up.  
  
"The sooner we leave the better. This is not our fight, we have what we came for and you've nearly won anyway, the city below is back in your control all the surviving paladins are on their way up. Just be patient and you will have all the help you need within an hour or two. You have no need for our small squad."  
  
"There are more paladin's coming?"  
  
"Aye, we could see them below us several spirals down the stairs as we reached the top. They should be here in about twenty minutes or so."  
  
"Good."  
  
The dwarves quickly trotted down the stairs with G'nolga and vanished from sight a few seconds later. Julia was disappointed, but she wasn't very surprised. The Dwarves weren't known for interacting with humans on a regular basis. Most of the clans kept to themselves and rarely left their homes deep in the mountains. Only a rare few ever ventured out among the world and see what they could and most of those were like G'nolga. Rogues who were more than willing to fight anyone that got in their way.  
  
She turned to Tirga. "You heard?"  
  
"I did. We should wait for them to arrive now that we know they are on their way, before we start the next attack."  
  
"I agree, but I still think time is moving against us. The longer we leave Rook in there to do whatever he's doing, the more danger we place ourselves in."  
  
"Sheila is getting that Ashaton fellow and the paladins up to date on what has happened so far from our point of view. They've all been staring at the Dracolich as well and I can smell their fear. I'm not sure they will be of much use, most of them are wore out from marching up those stairs."  
  
"They're professionals Tirga, you know the kind of person you have to be to even be considered for a position."  
  
"True. I have no doubts that they will fight no matter what, but all of them are wore out mentally and physically. I'm not sure how much more they can give."  
  
"They will give as much as we tell them to." Julia said quietly and turned away, her feet crushing some of the dead leaves scattered across the ground.  
  
Tirga sighed. He understood what she meant, but didn't like it one bit. Everyone turned to watch as the Dracolich suddenly started to move around, crushing a portion of the wall surrounding the Palace and building up a small hill of debris. It turned it's glowing eyes on them and almost seemed to grin at them as some grayish black smoke wafted out from the sides of it's mouth. Lighting filled the sly behind it, giving the beast a demonic aura of evil.  
  
"Then again, she may be right after all."  
  
oooooooooo  
  
To Be Concluded...  
  
End Notes - Well I had a big rant here, then as usual wouldn't accept it and erased the whole thing. Sigh. I'm not going to rewrite it now that I'm in a calmer mood. On to the next and final chatper of the Jade Saga and GO for that matter, for some time to come.

Later...  
  
Ashaton Chaos (later in BHC he will be known as Ashaton Chaos Saotome)Fighting Style: Chaos Wind StyleWeapon: Large England Broadsword Age:21 Hair/Eye Color: Brown Height: 6ft (largest WereRat to date)Weight: 190 in WereRat, 210 in human, also has werecheetah blood that was recently unlocked  
  
Attacks: Aero Beam  
  
The Edge Guard:  
  
Sheila is Gar's sister. She has a rare werecat birth defect where her human form has her strength and speed instead of her hybrid form. She's an adult in a teenager's hybrid form. She chooses her hybrid form in combat usually because her human form lacks the healing and jagwere dexterity. Also, she's accepted more as 'one of the guys' when she's small, not as a gorgeous damsel to be put on a pedestal to court. Despite her insisted maturity, she uses words like pow and kapowie. Most of her elemental attacks are based around them. She's infatuated with Tirga, but refuses to let him know.  
Race: Jagwere Class: swashbuckler/ fighter Weapon: Ice Fang, scimitar Special Ability: The fastest healer in hybrid form.  
  
Gar is second in command of the Northern Edge Guard. A dark and brooding warrior since Brittany Diggers spurned his affections after he tried to defeat her lover Stripe in hand-to-hand combat. Since he was trained by the famous armsmaster, Julia Diggers, the fight was nearly his. Gar refuses to let go for reasons of his own. But Julia taught him first and foremost to have patience without hesitance. Race: Jagwere Class: Martial artist/ fighter Weapon: Thunder Edge, partisan (spear)  
Special Ability: During a solar eclipse, Gar can focus his power to perform the Lunar Rave, increasing his strength, speed, and size.  
  
Tirga is a hedonistic, vain womanizer, who relies on his charm to get out of most scrapes. But behind his fun-loving demeanor, Tirga is a cautious, secretive person. Often uses disguises to blend into his surroundings when tracking his quarry.  
Race: Were-tiger Class: Rogue/Tracker/Tactician Weapon: Fire Claw, morning star mace Special Ability: His powers of vanity allow him to grow his hair to any length or style to aid in his disguises.  
  
Onoli is the leader of the Northern Edge Guard, and their strongest and wisest member. Raised in bushido schools of thought, Onoli lets little disturb his tranquility. Well-versed in the laws of the Retreat, he makes an eloquent public speaker at the Council.  
Race: Were-lion Class: samurai Weapons: Seraphim and Necro, swords of Light and Dark soul energy. The Jasper - Rain  
  
Thropan is a mechanical artifact expert as well as a mechanical and magical engineer. He rebuilt and modified the standard issue Edge Guard elemental weapons and gear with his own experimental designs including the device that lets them gate around. With science and technology outlawed on Jade, Thropan toes the line with all his technological experiments using magic for power.  
Race: Were-panther Class: Magical engineer/ martial artist Weapon: Earth Flail, dragon's claw (bladed nunchaku)  
Special Ability: Master of the School of Xiao Pai Long


	15. Chapter 14

----------  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 14  
Cory D. Rose  
(c) 2005  
----------

Ranma was watching the sky as the lightning storm filled the sky high above him, covering the entire city. According to Sheila, the lightning was a manifestation of the weakening magical barrier that kept Seer's Hamlet out of phase with the rest of the world. He wasn't sure what all that meant, but he could almost feel the magical energy destabilizing as he stood there.

A part of him could tell that something was holding the barrier together but he wasn't sure what it was. He had other things to think about at the moment. Like the upcoming fight. Glancing around the area, he could see that all the red armored paladins seemed to be taking things in stride, though a few also appeared to think that they wouldn't survive the upcoming battle with the Dracolich or Rook himself.

He wanted to go over and yell at them for being such cowards. There was no way he was going to let some overgrown pile of walking bones get the better of him in a fight. So what if it was bigger than the other undead they were fighting throughout the city.

It was still as weak as all the others, all they needed to do was hit it with the right kind of attack and reduced to a pile of splinters. He recalled a couple of moves he'd read about in those books he borrowed a few months before and wondered if one of them would be effective enough to stop the thing.

For some reason he had his doubts if the move he was thinking about would work or not. He hadn't gotten a chance to figure out how it worked either, but it's not as if that had ever stopped him before. Shaking his head, he decided that since there were more lives than his at stake, using that move wouldn't work unless it was a last resort.

He glanced over at the monster as it lay there looking around at the army of paladins slowly taking up their positions, getting prepared to attack. Julia was off to the side directing the Commander's forces. The paladins were in three groups, those that were ready to fight, those that needed to rest and were backing up the first force, and the injured.

Very few of the paladin's survived the undead hell that was below and quite a few were scared out of their minds. Not that it would make them turn tail and run though, they knew better than that. They all knew that if they died the bodies would just rise up and attack them. That scared them more than dying themselves. It was cold blooded, but Ranma didn't really care. He would deal with them if it happened, otherwise it didn't really matter.

He turned to look at the Dracolich as it suddenly surged to its feet, wings spread, and moved out in front of the Palace. The first force of paladin's instantly came alert, waiting for the command to attack, their magical weapons at the ready.

"ALL PALADINS IN POSITION!" The Commander yelled, his voice echoing across the area, amplified by a spell built into his armor.

Ranma was impressed with how fast the men responded to the order in a professional way. Quickly and smoothly, with no wasted energy as they all moved into their final position within a few seconds. The second wave also moved into position, waiting for their own orders as Julia quickly moved through the ranks and gave each of them their mission.

Even as everyone was settling down into an attack position, a beam of red light shot out of the center of the Palace and rose into the sky until it hit the barrier high above them. Ranma gaped at the light and tried to figure out what might be causing it. He glanced at Sheila, but she seemed as baffled as he was at the moment.

He felt something in the air around them as the light seemed to spread through the barrier, then silence washed over them as the lightning storm just stopped. At the spot where the light hit the barrier, a large circle of lightning formed and the Tree shook below them. Everyone, already on guard with the Dracolich moving, suddenly froze and looked down.

"What's going on?" Sheila asked, a hint of panic in her voice. Ranma wondered what she was worried about.

"The Great Tree has never suffered from an earthquake in its existence, never." A nearby paladin said and stomped on the bark below his feet a few times, as if trying to make it shake again. He looked confused when nothing happened. "I don't like this."

Another shudder ran through the tree, dislodging leaves from the upper branches of the tree, sending them raining down on them for several minutes. This didn't stop the Dracolich from moving about in front of the palace, its eyes glowing with an eerie white color as it gazed at them.

This time as the shudder wound down, instead of stopping, it leveled out into a light shaking felt through the tree. The paladins were starting to get nervous as it continued and they all looked up at the red light rising into the sky. Even though Ranma couldn't see their faces, he could sense their uneasiness growing.

----------

Off to the side, Ashaton Chaos, in human form, was crouched down gripping the hilt of his sword as the jewels started to glow. No one really noticed, they were to busy gaping at the red beam of light rising into the sky and trying to keep their balance on the shaking ground.

He could feel something in the air. It was almost as if it was charged with a large amount of energy. Whatever it really was, the jewels in his sword were reacting to the evil presence in the air. He watched as the Commander raised a glowing blade into the air.

"Attack!" His voice echoed.

The first wave of paladins surged forward in groups of five, moving towards the Dracolich from several different directions at once. Dozens of fireballs launched at the beast's chest and head, setting off explosion after explosion. Ranma stood back and watched to see how the monster reacted to the barrage.

Large explosions of fire washed over the monster's body, sending fire flying in all directions, lighting up its bones and burning off more of the already dead skin. It roared and reared back, bring its long neck back around and slammed a large claw down, trying to stomp on a group of paladins.

"DIE HUMANS!" The Dracolich roared in an unspeakable voice. "Pathetic bags of rancid meat!"

An ethereal light started to form around the thing, as it prepared to fire off its breath weapon once more. The paladins ignored the danger, moving in as quickly as possible so they could fire off more attack spells into the legs and under belly. Hoping that one of them would shatter the Dracolich's defensive magic. A couple of paladin's gave their lives as they fired fire balls down the thing's throat and died as the attack was disrupted and it's tail pierced them.

After several seconds, they retreated and a second wave moved in. Ranma spotted a weak spot and shot forward. Behind him, Sheila yelled for him to wait, but he ignored her as he formed a powerful fireball. He ran for several yards, jumped into the air and rose above the battle as he thrust his hands forward.

"FIREBALL!"

The blast shot out and hit the Dracolich along its body, right below the wing joint. The explosion rocked the tree as everyone dove for cover or used a shield to protect themselves from the force of the fireball. The Dracolich roared and staggered back as the wing ripped from the body and crashed to the ground.

Paladins yelled as the wing fell and they redoubled their attacks, focusing on the monster's joints with their most post powerful spells while ignoring the growing number of dead. More explosions rocked the front of the palace, shaking the entire building and cracking walls. The Dracolich roared and fired its breath weapon onto a group of paladins.

"Keep fighting!" Julia yelled as the paladins fell. She pointed to a group off to the side, then at the bodies. The group, with black bands on their arms, ran onto the field as the dead started to twitch. Calling out a series of spells, the bodies rose into the air to be tossed right off the edge of the tree before they could be resurrected by Rook's spell.

From there they worked their way around the field of battle, levitating any dead they came across and tossing them right off the tree. Ranma fired off a couple more fireballs, though these weren't as effective at the first one. He could see an energy field around the Dracolich deflecting most of the damage, with very little getting through.

Wading into battle, Sheila and Tirga both started to fire off their weapon attacks. Larger than normal versions literally exploded away from the magical weapons and slammed into the side of the Dracolich. Tirga powered up and fired a second blast with his weapon. This was right as the thing fired off its breath weapon once more. The nearby paladin's scattered even as it opened its great maw.

Four paladins died as their assault received a point blank breath weapon attack; they didn't even have time to scream as the smoky substance washed over their bodies. Their bodies lifted into the air and sailed out over the edge even before they had a chance to fall to the ground. Their deaths only served to redouble everyone else's efforts.

Ranma skidded to a halt about fifty yards from the Dracolich, took up a Neko-ken stance, and crossed his arms as his hands started to glow. He focused his power for a second, remembering the training he'd gone though to control the technique. With a cat like yowl, he swiped at the monster and started to send dozens of cutting slashes at the Dracolich.

Even with the protective magic, its bones were ripped apart in seconds, as if a pair of giant hands was shredding it. It roared at the unexpected attack and damage to its body. The head and neck swung around and it opened its mouth. Instead of the death mist, the back of its throat flared with light and massive amount of fire hurled out.

Ranma cursed as he jumped using his training and sailed over twenty feet to the side. While in midair, he sent off several more attacks directed towards the thing's head and jaw, severing large chunks of dead meat and bone. Paladins moved in on the heels of the attack and started to chop the thing to bits with their enchanted swords.

Quickly severing one of its legs and removing several ribs while Julia called in another group of back up fighters to replace some of the fallen paladins.

Ranma landed and instantly flipped several feet backwards and to the side as the Dracolich's clawed arm slammed down into the wood of the Tree and sheered out a large chunk that sent a shudder through the bark.

He spotted movement around him and watched as Julia dropped down from the darkness above the thing and tried shoving her sword through its skull. Her blade bounced off the hardened bone with a shower of magic sparks and it tried to thrash her off. When that failed she jumped backwards and managed to detach a large section of the thing's left wing with another shower of magic sparks as the blade sliced through the bone.

She jumped off, landed nearby, and quickly made her way over to Ranma. "We have to hurry. For some reason its magic isn't working. My sword shouldn't have been able to do what it just did."

"Any idea what happened to it?"

"No, only a guess."

"What would that be?"

"Something is draining its magic."

"Rook." Ranma muttered and she nodded.

"I'm just not sure why he would be doing that after going to all this trouble to bring it and the others here."

"KEEP HITTING IT TILL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT BUT A PILE OF SHATTERED BONES!" The paladin commander yelled as his men instantly set to work. "WE'RE WINNING!"

The Paladin's cheered!

Ranma rushed forward and launched another Neko-ken attack, causing even more damage. This left it somewhat unbalanced, Sheila and Tirga each had time to fire off large-scale attacks. Freezing one of its remaining legs to the ground while Tirga's fire managed to burn away more of the chest area.

The Dracolich had other ideas as it lifted itself up on its hind legs and fired its breath weapon at the attack fighters. Most of the paladins dodged the torrent of deadly mist, but several more of them fell to the ground as it finished passing over them. Ranma, Julia, Sheila, and Tirga all attacked the Dracolich, taking even more of its body with them.

No one could really do anything to help a group of paladin's that were swept off the tree by the Dracolich's tail. They barely had time to scream as it happened. Another group of back up fighters moved into position and started to throw spells seconds later.

----------

Behind the lines, Thropan held back with Ashaton and a couple of paladins, slightly injured, were waiting for a chance to attack without getting in everyone's way. Thropan could tell that Ashaton's large weapon was a very powerful magical weapon and he was itching to reach out, take it, and spend about a month studying it. It was a hard urge to resist.

Then they all moaned in disappointment as the detached leg and one of the wings suddenly turned into a mist, flowed over to the Dracolich, and reattached themselves. The blasted things looked as strong as ever. They could hear Ranma yelling out a curse from over fifty yards away. Multiple explosions echoed over the area as the paladins wadded in once more.

"Damn." Thropan muttered. "I thought we had it there, but these blasted things are neigh impossible to kill."

"My sword might have the power to take it down." Ashaton said.

Thropan gave him a look. "Conserve your power for now, we need to stop Rook as well and I think he will be a lot harder to stop than this thing."

"True." Ashaton said as he gazed up at the red beam of energy rising up into the sky. If anything, it was actually starting to get brighter and brighter the longer than fight went on.

"Let's get ready; it looks like our turn will be here in a few minutes." Thropan said as they saw the group next to them rush into the fight. The Dracolich's tail swung around and sent the group flying into the side of the palace, throwing them nearly forty yards.

Thropan and Ashaton winced as the paladins rained down on the courtyard in front of the palace. They watched as the men tried to get back to their feet, as they were protected by their armor, but most of them only got a few paces before falling down.

"You two ready to go?" The Commander said as he walked up.

"Yeah." Thropan said. "That tail needs to be taken care of though." Thropan said.

"Aye, it does, but just do your best. We nearly have the thing. The Armsmaster said that its power is really weak right now."

"Good." Ashaton said as he prepared to head into combat. "I'm ready."

They turned back to the fight just as Ranma saved two of the paladins from certain death. The rest managed to get back to safety before they were killed as well. Ranma carried to the two guys over to where the injured were being kept when he heard a sound, something he hadn't expected.

Lots and lots of running feet. Not twenty yards away fifty red armored paladins topped the stairs and instantly rushed into battle. Their gauntlets glowed as they all started to fire off attack after attack. The Commander saw them and instantly started to direct them in several different directions while they all started to decimate the Dracolich.

A bolt of lightning lanced from the main gate to the Palace and hit a paladin in the back. He screamed and fell to the ground. No one really noticed because they were busy with the Dracolich, but Ashaton saw that it was what appeared to be an old man wearing a red mage suit and carrying a staff.

"That must be one of the wizards killed when the Dracolich killed everyone in the palace. Rook must have sent him out here to kill us."

"We are making short work of the Dracolich."

"True, but it's still going to take several minutes before we finally take it down."

"I'll get he wizard then." Ashaton said as he broke into a run and in mid step changed into his werecheetah form. His speed skyrocketed as he vanished from sight even as his hand reached for his sword.

A set of steps ran up to a large set of double doors set into the wall around the Palace. Ashaton shot up these and took a swing at the undead wizard, his blade slammed into a barrier with a shower of sparks. Then the wizard knew he was there, held up his hand, and bolt of force hurled him off the steps and to the ground below.

"Idiot." The undead wizard muttered. A sneer on its face as it stood there looking down at Ashaton.

Crawling to his feet, Ashaton shook his head and picked up his sword. "You are so going down."

"You swords man are always so arrogant. You can't stand up to my magic!"

It pointed a finger at Ashaton's feet and the stone of the steps liquefied. Falling into the stuff caught him by surprise and he slipped and fell over, then it began to harden. Cursing his stupidity, Ashaton closed his eyes and suddenly shrank into his other form.

That of a wererat. It was half the size of his werecheetah form and a third of his human form. He still had is sword though, so he concentrated on that for a second as it began to glow. "Ruby Flare!"

The stone exploded away from him in all directions and he slowly crawled out of the hole and turning human again as he came to his feet. "That wasn't a nice thing to do."

The undead wizard had managed to kill several more paladins in the short time he was under the steps, so Ashaton wasn't very happy. He surged forward, transforming back into the werecheetah form with its superior strength and speed and swung at the wizard.

Just like before the shield was in place and easily deflected the blade and the wizard moved to throw a fireball, forming it between his hands. "Time to die, idiot."

Growling in frustration, Ashaton uses his speed to increase his attacks until he is nothing but a blur of action slamming his sword against the magical barrier. At the same time, he began slowly adding a bit of magical power to the attack by whispering 'chaos slash' under his breath. Every couple of seconds the shield flared into visibility as the magic attack slammed into it.

The wizard laughed and held the fireball out, ready to fire. "It's time to burn in your own juices, shape changer."

"Aghaa!" Ashaton yelled and grinned as his blade turned blue for a brief second and went through the field and through the wizard's stomach.

The wizard grunted in shock and looked down at the blade, a stupid look on its face, just as Ashaton yanked it upward and split the body in half, spun the sword and cut off an arm, and removed the head. He starred down at the body for a second before moving past the gate.

Several more undead were heading towards him, but they weren't wizards so after a short fight, he quickly chopped them to pieces and made his way to the door that led into the High palace. It stood ten feet high and appeared to be made form a dark lacquered wood. Golden decorations covered the door.

He was glad that the undead fighters he just dispatched had opened it for him, making entry into the building a lot easier than it could've been. Moving slowly he tried to watch for anything that might attack him as he entered and hoped that rook hadn't had time to set up anything truly nasty while he was inside.

For some reason Ashaton had a feeling that he was in for a very dangerous fight and opted to stay in his werecheetah form. The extra speed and strength would come in handy. The front entrance opened up into a wide hall with a pair of staircases circling up to the second floor. Off to the sides were several doors that obviously led to different wings of the Palace.

His senses as a werecheetah were amped up and he was able to sense that there was a large amount of magic being used inside the building. He wasn't a mage himself, but after using his sword and other weapons for so long, he was able to sense magic to a certain extent. Now it was time to see if he could stop this attack at its source.

Rook had to be stopped.

"Come out wherever you are you undead morons." He muttered.

He ascended the stairs slowly, keeping an eye out for any kind of surprise attack. So far things were a little to quiet. The whole building was as quiet as a tomb. In a way it really was a tomb because of all the undead running around inside. He ran into his attacker seconds after he reached the first landing as a grey-skinned man stepped out of the only doorway to meet him.

The thing looked him over and grinned a little. "Fresh meat, how nice."

Ashaton had to resist an urge to roll his eyes at the thing. Bringing his sword to bare, he let a bit of magic cover the blade, powering up an attack. "Bring it on."

The man was wearing leather clothing, had a long beard with several braids, and a nasty looking sword in one hand. The thing's sword rivaled his own weapon in sheer size. "Let's see how you fare against me."

The undead fighter didn't even give his name, just took a couple of large steps and started running at him, the blade held over his head to cleave him in half. Ashaton had to blink a couple of times before he rolled his eyes, this time he couldn't resist, and swung his sword.

"CHAOS SLASH!"

The undead fighter became one with the wall, the ceiling, the floor, the floor below, and some of the charred carpet as well. The mauled and twisted remains of the sword clattered to the floor below, scratching the hell out of the perfectly buffed tile.

Ashaton looked at the damage, at his sword, and back again with a smirk. "I always knew the blade was powerful, but nothing like that."

Something about the inside of the Palace seemed to be increasing his sword's ability quite a bit. He edged his way down the hall to peak his head around the doorway, only to see another hall. This one had no doors and let to another hall a little way down. He could see some kind of light flickering at the end of the hallway, but he wasn't sure what was causing it. A torch wouldn't make a bright red glow like that.

He edged his way into the short hallway, being careful not to step on anything that looked weird. The feeling in the air as he moved kept growing stronger with every step. By the time he reached the end of the hallway he could feel something pulsing. The force of the energy was strong enough to pound against him by the time he reached the end of the hall. In addition, it forced him to kneel down and lean against the wall.

The smell of blood was in the air and it was enough to make him sick to his stomach. Even the dead paladin's hadn't smelled like this as they died. He was almost afraid to peak around this corner for he knew what he would see. Gritting his teeth, and trying to breath through his mouth, he slowly looked around the corner.

This hallway curved just a little at the end and he was able to look around the corner to see an archway with two undead wizards standing guard. They were wearing nice robes and if not for the chalky skin and slightly messed up eyes, he wouldn't have known they were even dead.

Then he noticed two bodies pinned to the ceiling with dozens of holes in them. They had once been female, he could tell that from what they were wearing, but beyond that, he couldn't really say. For some reason they hadn't been turned like the wizards. His senses were also telling him that they were the source of the feted smell in the air.

Beyond the guards and through the archway Ashaton could see a large chamber with a set of doors smoldering on the floor just to the side of the archway. A third body was laid out on the fire and burning merrily. It was tied down and still moving as it burned, struggling to free itself.

Rook was sitting in one of few remaining chairs in the room reading a scroll and casting a couple of spells. Red energy seemed to be swirling around the room and shooting right through the stone ceiling. Everything else was either shattered or tossed against the walls. He would glance over every few seconds and make sure the poor soul's bonds hadn't given way yet.

There was nothing Ashaton could do to help the guy as he burned. He wanted to run down there, pull the guy off the fire, and help him at all costs. However, he was smart enough to realize that it would be impossible to get through two wizards and Rook to save the guy. Gritting his teeth, he put the burning man out of his mind.

Instead he turned his attention, considered the two wizards guarding the entrance, and knew he'd gotten lucky with first wizard and really didn't want to take on two at once. From the bodies hanging from the ceiling he could tell that they were far more deadly than the one outside.

The first one was a short little guy and reminded him of a Halfling, but he was covered in body tattoos, and if the guy had hair on his body it sure wasn't noticeable. Instead, he was wearing a pair of tight leather pants and held a large rune covered staff at his side. There was no obvious sign of death as far as he could tell.

The other one was human, rather old, with long white hair and a full beard. He wore a thick robe and a pair of glasses. Ashaton couldsee a large bloody gash in the man's chest where a sword or spear was shoved through. This caused Ashaton to recall what he could about the first wizard he fight a little while ago.

The first had been stupid and thought that taunting him would make him do something to let his guard down. He couldn't count on that kind of thing with all of them. He needed a plan, and quick.

Then he heard something and turned to see a cute little robot by his foot. "I saw you earlier. You're that thing that was hanging around with Ranma aren't you?" He asked quietly as he glanced at the little Peebo.

It appeared to nod and smile.

"Can you help with those wizards?"

"Use iron."

"Iron?"

"Filing. Iron filings. They are aura wizards and iron disrupts their magic." B whispered.

Ashaton frowned. "I don't have any."

B rolled his eyes and rolled off before Ashaton could say anymore. Then the bot started laughing. "Good luck, moron!"

Watching the little bot move off, Ashaton shrugged. It was a good idea but he just didn't carry that kind of stuff around with him. He'd seen it used down in the base palace earlier though.

"Guess I'll just have to take a chance." He thought to himself and gripped the hilt of his sword tighter. The blade began to glow as he built up a charge of magic.

Then he stepped around the corner. "RUBY SHINING WAVE!"

Everyone turned to look at him as the magical blast sailed down the hallway, ripped deep holes in the walls, and slammed into one of the wizards. It staggered back as the other one looked on. Ashaton slid to a stop as he realized that the undead wizards hadn't been destroyed.

Instead the one he'd hit was slowly coming back to his feet. The shorter one just stood there eyeing Ashaton for a second.

"You should not have come here." He said.

"Now we have to kill you." The one Ashaton hit said as he finished standing. His clothing was in tatters, but it didn't appear as if he was as damaged as he should have been.

Growling, Ashaton twirled his sword and prepared to attack once more. The human zombie held is hand outwards and with a flare of magic a wave of power flew down the little passage way. Ashaton brought his sword to bare and used it like shield as the magic slammed into him.

The blade managed to stop it the blast, but it still pushed him back a couple of feet as he strained against the force of the blast. After several seconds it died down and Ashaton let the magic dissipate around him. Growling, Ashaton swung his sword and sent a wave of magic towards the zombie.

"Crap!" He yelled just as it hit him and threw him backwards, right into the red glow in the room behind him. Where he promptly disintegrated as he passed through the field of energy.

Casting spells like that through his sword was hard work at times. Ashaton really didn't like to do it, but as the little zombie turned to look at him, again he could tell that this one would be a little harder. The small fighters were always the hardest.

"Bring it on shorty." Ashaton said and brought his sword to bare once more. "Let's see what you can do."

The short guy eyed for several seconds before reaching for the weapon on his back and bringing it around. "You will not pass."

Ashaton snarled and the ruby in the hilt of his sword flared brightly. "Time to end this once and for all."

The little zombie, no more than four foot high, just stood there as an aura of power swirled around him. It grew bigger and bigger as the seconds passed. His staff also started to glow with power as it absorbed the magic building up inside the hallway.

They reacted as one, bringing their weapons around and firing a blast of energy at each other. Ashaton could barely maintain his feet as he stood there holding back what felt like an ocean of power. His feet started to slide on the floor as they put everything they had into the beams.

Then the little one stopped, rolled to the side and threw a swarm of glowing daggers. Ashaton had to let his own energy disperse as he dodged the new attack. The blades embedded themselves right into the stone.

He changed in his werecheetah form in mid roll, bringing his sword around to bat several more daggers out of the air. "What is your name?"

"Kithra Bane." The zombie said. "You shall not get through."

"Yeah yeah." Ashaton muttered as he tried to find a way past the little jerk's defenses.

Suddenly runes all over the zombie's body flared to life and the staff came around to point at Ashaton. It flared a wall of fire exploded from the jewel at the top of the staff.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Ashaton yelled as the wall of fire slammed into him. He was instantly glad that he was in werecheetah form as he yelled out in pain and fell to the ground, his entire body smoking.

Kithra edged down the small hallway and eyed the smoking body. Then it twitched and the large sword flew right through his chest, threw him back, and impaled him on the wall. The ruby lit up and seconds later Kithra's body turned to dust and crumbled to the floor.

Crawling to his feet, Ashaton gritted his teeth in pain as his regeneration repaired the damage to his body in a matter of seconds. Gasping for air, Ashaton lurched to his feet. He limped over to the sword and yanked it out of the wall. Using its power, he sped up the regeneration of his body and turned to look at the archway that led into the next room.

Ashaton's form shifted into his wererat form, doubling the speed that his body regenerated. He walked over to the archway and touched the energy barring his way. It sparked the instant he touched it and nearly removed the tip of his finger before he could pull his hand away.

He stood there and watched as it regenerated a little slowly and knew that just walking into the room was going to be a challenge. Frowning a little he glanced over at the burning bodies around the room and realized that each of them must have served some purpose.

Frowning a little he considered his options and brought his sword to bare, the blade gleaming as he collected the magical energy needed to pull this off. Rook had placed a ward around the room to keep unwanted people out, even the zombies, so that he could work in private.

Ashaton gritted his teeth, brought the blade down on the barrier with a grunt, and put his full strength into it. The glowing blade cleaved through the barrier with a burst of light. The archway exploded with the force of a small bomb. Ashaton, right in the center, cried out as he hurled down the hall and slammed into the wall.

The tiny pieces of his sword that survived embedded themselves in the wall around him. The hilt clattered to the floor, the jeweled handle charred and smoking. He groaned and tried to move, but he could barely sit up.

Loud clattering footsteps echoed in the hallway as Rook walked over to him and kneeled down. His pitch black armor gleamed as fires from the blast slowly burned everything in the hall.

"Who might you be? I was expecting Julia Diggers or that boy I fought earlier." Rook asked his voice almost pleasant as he grabbed Ashaton by the hair and lifted his head up.

Ashaton groaned in pain.

"Now, who are you? Those zombies shouldn't have gone down that easily."

"Ash-Ashaton Chaos."

Rook looked him over. "Never heard of you and I know most of the great fighters on Jade. There is now way you would escape my notice.

"Rook yanked his head to the side and slammed it into he wall. "Talk!"

Groaning, Ashaton could barely see.

"The blast seems to have addled you. To bad, but it makes my goal a lot easier to achieve." Rook said to himself as he stood up and reached inside his chest plate to remove a small shield.

Power filled the hallway as it came into view glowing brightly. "This should take care of you. The Shield of the Phoenix, the gate of worlds, I've always wanted to test its strength."

Ashaton looked up and saw Rook holding an object. Said object was something he'd been questing to find, nearly twenty years, and it was just a few feet away. "I can…get…home…" Ashaton muttered.

Brandishing the shield, a wave of power fired out of the bird shaped shield. Ashaton threw himself forward and avoided the blast. It hit the wall behind him and it just vanished from existence. Leaving a ten foot hole where the wall used to be.

"Not going…to be…that easy." Ashaton grunted as he came up and punched Rook.

Stumbling back, Rook shook his helm and turned his glowing eyes on the dead man in front of him. "You should have just given up and died. Now I'll make you pay for that."

Reaching behind his back, Ashaton pulled a dagger out of its hidden sheath and gasped for air. Even with the werecheetah healing his body felt like it was about to drop dead at any second. He reasoned that the blast, since it was fueled by magic means, had hurt him quite a bit and he wouldn't be regenerating the damage any time soon.

Rook put the shield away and reached for a sword at his side. "Let's see what you've got."

"More than you think." Ashaton snapped.

The sword whipped out of Rook's sheath and Ashaton was barely able to bring is dagger around to block the attack. The werecheetah stumbled back several steps as the force of the blow nearly threw him off his feet. Then twin beams of magic fired from Rook's eyes.

The magic hit Ashaton right in the chest with the force of a car accident. Once more he flew down the hall, but this time the wall wasn't there and Ashaton fell through the hole. Rook stalked over, glared down into the room on the other side of the wall, and noticed that Ashaton wasn't moving.

"What a bore."

Several seconds later with a burst of light Ashaton vanished, leaving nothing behind, nobody, not even any blood. Rook stared at the spot for several seconds before turning around and stalking back down the corridor. He moved past all the dead or burning bodies without a thought. He waved his hand at them and the fires went out instantly.

Rook didn't notice as the shield he'd just used vanished when he put it back inside his armor. Two more undead wizards stepped into the hallway as Rook passed by. They took up position against the wall as Rook entered the council room once more.

"Keep everyone out; I don't have time to reset the wards."

"Yes Lord Rook."

----------

The whole Tree seemed to lurch beneath the fighters as they finished their attack on the Dracolich. One last attack with everyone attacking at once managed to overwhelm the monster and reduce it to dust. What they left could be collected and sent to the lower palace for study later on.

The fight had gone a bit better than Julia thought it would. They only lost about seventy men during the fight, though another thirty were too injured to ever fight again. The rest of the paladins only sported small injuries that wouldn't hurt them as they continued to fight.

There was only one fight left. They had to take the High Palace back from Rook and stop him finally. The bastard would never again get a chance to do something like this. Too many lives had been taken for them to show even the smallest amount of mercy or compassion.

Out in front of the Palace, in the courtyard, the whole area looked as if massive sections of the tree were burning. Tired soldiers helped to carry the wounded back to the makeshift hospital areas while others tried to put out the fires. The smell of death hung heavy in the air as those with the black armband moved through the desolation and levitated bodies into the air and threw them off the tree.

The Commander had several men rushing around trying to contain the fires as they raged over the grounds. Even a few brave paladins were fighting a fire that started in the Palace itself. They used the large entrance to Goldwave's lair so that no one was noticed.

An eerie silence settled over the area, clean up and regrouping only took ten minutes after the Dracolich finally fell. Off to the side Ranma took a second to flip the top of is bracer open to check and see if B was still functional. He was a little worried about the annoying little Peebo.

The stats screen, as Brianna had explained it to him, showed that the little bot was still active and nearby. The bot hadn't been acting as it used to after the fighting started. It wasn't throwing around insults anymore and acted a bit more serious. Ranma wasn't too sure what to think of that.

"Commander!" A paladin yelled from nearby.

"What is it?"

"This wizard that attacked us earlier, it's Lord Garath."

Julia walked over and looked down at the gory mess. "Looks like he was turned like so many others."

"Possibly, but does this mean we will have fight the very council?"

"I believe so."

The Commander frowned. "Our oaths make…"

"Oaths?"

"The Paladin's swear a magical oath to the Council when they take up arms for the city." Tirga explained as he knelt down and examined the body of the fallen mage. "The paladin's obey the orders given to them by any council member during a time of war."

"You mean if one of those undead things steps out here and tells them to kill us, they will do it?!"

"No, they have some freedom of thought, but they will also lose their right to be a paladin for Seer's Hamlet." Tirga explained. "Their armor and magic will cease to work while they continue to act in the Hamlet's name."

"Theo never mentioned anything like this before." Julia said.

"It isn't well known." Thropan added. "Most of the Edge Guard that have been around for a while knows of it, but it's just something that isn't talked about. Even Dr. Diggers might have just never thought to tell you about it unless you asked directly."

The Commander nodded. "Exactly. I thought the council was completely dead or mindless zombies. If they are able to still think for themselves, and are going to be used against us, they will know of the Oath…"

"I don't see that we have any choice but to continue through with our plan." Julia told him.

"Let's have them stay out here and guard the grounds Julia." Thropan suggested. "That way we don't have to take the chance at all."

"We might need them Thropan." Tirga countered. "I think they should come with us."

"What if they lose all their magic? It is tied into the council and if they lose that they are going to be at a serious disadvantage."

Tirga shrugged. "I'd rather take the chance."

"They stay." Julia decided and turned to the Commander. "Please understand this places everyone at risk."

"Oh I understand, I just don't like it." He muttered and stalked off. "We have fought under similar conditions before we became paladins Julia, we can fight that way again. I'll go and tell the men that things might become worse if they aren't careful."

Julia sighed, nodded, and turned to the others. "I'll need your help with this."

"Of course." Sheila said. "It's still Rook, and he'll always be a moron."

"Don't dismiss him like that Shelia, he's dangerous and we need to stop him before things get even more out of hand. I'm actually glad that the paladin's are coming with us. Rook used to terrorize the countryside outside of Seer's Hamlet and has always been a danger. This is just the first time that he's ever been able to bring that terror to the Hamlet." Tirga said with a shrug, for once being serious.

"Remember I enhanced our weapons earlier so they can do five times the as before, but the risks are there, so be careful." Thropan told them. "Ranma, do you need a weapon, can get you one?"

"No thanks." Ranma told him. "I'll use a weapon only if I have to so it's no big deal."

Julia gave him a disappointed look, she'd never been able to get him to carry a weapon around with him. She was just glad that she was able to expand his knowledge of weapons before this fight ever started.

Ranma ignored her and shrugged as he turned and walked through into the Palace courtyard with the others scrambling to catch up. Several yards into the decimated courtyard Ranma stopped walking and looked around warily.

"Now what's wrong?" Tirga snapped as they all came to a stop.

"I just sensed a large burst of magic from inside the building. Something completely different from what I've been sensing up until now. It's almost like what a dimension door spell feels like, but on a whole different level of power."

"Then he's nearly ready." Tirga said.

"Hurry, we have to stop him." Julia said and ran for the open front door of the palace.

"Julia, how many undead wizards are we likely to run into?" Ranma asked. "I don't think anyone has ever said how many were in here when that Dracolich killed them."

"Anywhere from five to eight I think." Thropan said. "Onoli once said that there were always one or two council members and few guards. They had a meeting earlier this morning when this whole thing began so several of them had to be here to watch thing when the emergency started."

"Sounds reasonable." Julia said. "I'm just not looking forward to fighting that many of my old friends. It's going to be like fighting Theo's father all over again."

Sheila and Tirga both shuddered a little.

"Who?" Ranma asked them. He'd never heard anything about this and he'd been with the family for several months now.

"Theo's father was a powerful Auramage just like Theo, except while working to create his greatest spell he made a mistake and tried to cast it too soon. It overwhelmed and killed him with a burst of magic, reversing everything about him. Turning him evil is an understatement, instead of dying he went from living to undead and became a powerful Lich. He calls himself the Lich King, and has tried to kill most of us at one point. Once he even tried to possess Gina because she is a blood relative, so he could live again."

"Could he be behind all these undead running around?"

The others glanced at him as if they'd never considered the idea before.

"I don't know." Julia admitted. "It's possible, but his style is little different than this. He likes to manipulate people and control them."

"Rook is in full control of this attack." Thropan said. "He would never let the Lich King run things for him. I'd think Rook would try to use him if he was around to cause problems."

"Let's get upstairs, the Council's main room should be on the left hand side of the Palace. Just down that hallway that leads off the stairs over there." Julia told them.

Ranma and Sheila quickly made their way up the stairs and over to the second level. They inched their way over to the archway and glanced around the corner. The signs of a battle filled the hallway, burnt stone, cracked and broken walls, and even shattered furniture.

Taking a second to close his eyes, Ranma took a deep breath, started to tap into the Neko-ken, and felt his senses expand outward. Something he really shouldn't have done since he was trying to keep his constant headache under control.

Hissing in surprise, Ranma staggered back and grabbed his head as a burst of energy exploded from his body. Sheila was next to him even as he fell so she took a burst of energy to her chest that sent her crashing into the wall hard enough to crack the wood.

"Damn!" Tirga yelled as he launched himself up the steps and ran over to Sheila. "Sheila, are you all right?"

"Ran..ma…" She breathed just before she passed out completely.

Tirga turned and glared at Ranma even as Julia and Thropan ran up and began to check on all of them. "Who attacked them?" The werepanther asked.

"I don't know." Tirga snapped. "It happened too fast to see anything."

"Ranma was clutching his head." Julia said. "I think he had another one of those headaches he's been having for the last couple of hours."

"You mean he did this to Sheila?" Tirga hissed.

"Not intentionally. Ranma has a lot of power and he is usually in complete control of it, but these headaches keep sidelining him."

Suddenly Julia glanced up and saw that one of the Council wizards standing in the archway. Dal-vreen, the Plains Halfling, who was about four foot tall, covered in body tattoos, and wearing almost no clothing except a loin cloth. "Ah Julia, I was wondering who would try and get in here. The Master does not want to be disturbed."

Ranma whimpered as he struggled against another wave of pain. Glancing down at him, Dal-vreen pulled a six foot long staff covered in runes and tapped him with it a few times. "Interesting, two down already and I didn't even have to cast a spell. Excellent."

"Dal-vreen we have to stop Rook."

"You shall not pass." He stated simply. "My brother is down, I won't go as easily as he did."

"Tzu Tzu would not want you to do this." Thropan snapped.

"The Pygmy is no longer any concern of mine." Dal-vreen snapped and his staff started to glow. "Now it is time for you to go."

Growling, Tirga went from a kneeling position to a full on attack with Fire Claw in less than second. He roared as his clawed mace flew out and ripped the staff from Dal-vreen's hand. This was quickly followed by a series of blows that would have killed a normal person. The Halfling sailed off his feet and slammed into the wall.

"That was a mistake." Dal-vreen said as he slowly stood up with his eyes glowing like a pair of tiny suns. "I was willing to just let all of you walk out of here but now I've changed my mind."

The little wizard thrust his hand forward as if thrusting something, and Tirga screamed as Dal-vreen's staff took him in the ribs. He staggered back as the magic embedded in the staff flared. Regaining his balance, Tirga glared. "How, I ripped it out of your hands."

"Moron, it's not a real staff but a part of my very soul. It is a part of me and can never be taken away." Dal-vreen snapped, spun the staff, and hit Tirga right below the chin.

The weretiger lifted into the air and flew back several yards. He landed back near the group and groaned in pain. Dal-vreen stalked forward with a growing aura of power forming around his body. Pointing his staff at Tirga, Dal-vreen channeled the energy through the staff and fired.

"No!"

"ICE FANG! EARTH FLAIL!"

Just as the light faded, they heard a scream and the whole floor shook as that much magic was released in such a small space. As things calmed down they could see Tirga on the floor, Julia was kneeling in front of him while Thropan and Sheila were before her.

One the floor a few feet away Dal-vreen was a shattered mess on the floor. They relaxed and sheathed their weapons. Julia turned back to Ranma to see if he was still on the floor.

"Damn." Sheila muttered as she looked at her sword.

"Looks like Ice Fang channeled a bit too much magic." Thropan said as he examined it quickly. "You'll have to be careful, once it breaks the magic may turn on you in an instant. You may be out of the fight."

"No!" She snarled. "I'll take my chances."

"Sheila, I warned everybody that supercharging the attacks might cause this."

"I don't care. Not until I know Ranma is safe and we end this once and for all. Every little bit of help is needed."

"The pain seems to be lessoning a little." Julia said as she examined Ranma's head.

"He needs a few hours sleep to get past this." Thropan said as he picked up Tirga's body and slung it over his shoulder.

"We don't really have that much time to waste." Julia told him.

"I know, but it's still what he needs."

"I'll be fine." Ranma muttered. "I will survive this."

"Ranma you're pushing to hard.

He opened his pain filled eyes and glared at her. "What else am I supposed to do?"

"Rest."

"No." He snarled. "I'll finish this. I won't be beaten like that again, not by anybody, and not by a stupid headache. I won't allow it!"

"Ranma, it's not like that."

Slowly coming to his feet, Ranma shook himself a little and regained a bit of control. "I've been beaten by every scumbag I've come up against in one form or another in the last few months. I've had enough, Gar was the final straw in a series of losses that should never have happened."

"Ranma, everyone you've fought has loads more experience than you do, but you learned and adapted to each loss incredibly well…" She said, quietly.

"Not good enough, I've been trained to be the best fighter in the world and there are days everyone I come across seems to beat me in one way or another. I will not let a little pain defeat me." Ranma snarled.

"Ranma you are defeating yourself." Julia snapped right back. "

"Let him fight Julia. Something is eating at him and his headache isn't helping him to mask it very well." Tirga said. "Thropan put me down or I'll bite your tail."

The werepanther quickly dropped Tirga on the floor. "Sorry, didn't know how long you were going to be out. I was about to take you out to where the paladin's are treating the injured."

"I'm fine." Tirga said. "That thing just packed quite a punch."

"How many of those wizards will we have to deal with?" Sheila asked. "We need to get this over with, but if there are more wizards in our way…"

"I can sense who is about." Ranma told them. "Even though my &$# headache, and there is just one more dead wizard to deal with and then Rook is ours."

"You can sense them?" Sheila gasped. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"You can't? They really stand out." Ranma said and shrugged.

"Ranma." She growled.

"What?"

"Don't worry about it Sheila, that's the way Ranma is. He assumes things at times. Where's the next enemy Ranma?" Julia said as she pulled out her sword. "Let's take him down."

"Just around the corner a little ways."

"Ranma are you sure you're alright?" Sheila asked.

He nodded, slowly. "Yeah, I just can't figure out why I'm in pain or why my meditation doesn't seem to be working as well."

"I'm worried about you." She mumbled, blushing a little.

"I'm fine."

"I don't think you are."

Ranma really didn't know what to say and winced as another spike of pain nearly dropped him to his knees. He took a deep ragged breath as Shelia grabbed his hand.

"Come on Sheila, don't worry about it, I'm fine." Ranma told her and took his hand back. She looked disappointed.

They all turned and slowly moved down the hallway until they came to the curve, where not an hour before Ashaton had stood. They glanced at each other before Julia shrugged, knelt down to the floor and slowly looked around the corner. She pulled back and looked at the others.

"I see one guard, one of the dead council members. Beyond that is the archway that leads into the council chambers. The room is full of red light from several spells that seem to be flowing through the ceiling, the rooms above, and out the top of the Palace and into the upper atmosphere.

"Let's just hit the guard all at once and move on to Rook." Ranma suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Tirga agreed.

The others nodded.

"Why only one guard though, doesn't that see a bit stupid?" Sheila asked.

"I'm not sure." Julia said after thinking for a second. "This is usually how Rook does things, by using people as cannon fodder and taking care of things himself."

"But he even told us a little while ago that all this is planned out." Ranma said.

"I know and that has me worried."

"Then ignore the guard and just blast the hell out of the whole hallway, the room and the both of them at once."

They all turned to look at him for coming up with such a simple, yet more effective plan.

"What?"

"Works for me." Tirga said and patted Ranma on the back, causing him to stumble forward, out into the hall as he tripped over Julia's feet. He fell over as the guard jumped to attention and started to instantly form a spell.

"Tirga!" Sheila yelled.

"Ah, &$#." Ranma snarled as he finished coming to his feet. A large amount of power formed around him an instant later. He threw his hand forward and yelled the first spell that came to mind. Just not the one he really wanted.

"Dispel Magic!"

"Korvous!" The undead wizard yelled.

"No!" Sheila yelled and jumped for Ranma, transforming in mid leap into her human form. Even as she tackled him, the two spells hit each other in the middle of the hallway and went off.

With a bit of thought Ranma would have cast a fireball spell, but he didn't know why he cast that one instead. The wizard's Korvous spell, a rather evil spell that set a person's blood on fire, flared brightly and vanished as it lit up the whole hallway.

Everything was quiet for a second just as Tirga and Thropan ran around the corner, weapons drawn and instantly sent two large blasts of magic flying down the hallway. Julia moved over to where Ranma and Sheila were laid out on the floor.

"Don't worry mum, I got the toast…" Sheila muttered.

Ranma sweatdropped.

"Ranma, you get into the most interesting messes." Julia said just as Tirga and Thropan's blasts detonated at the end of the hall, completely obliterating the undead wizard. Her hair blew about her for a second as the compressed air blew by them.

Sheila jerked awake and found herself, still human, laying on top of Ranma. She blushed.

"This isn't the time for this, kids." Julia said as she stood back up and looked down the hallway as Rook stepped into sight inside the Council room. As always he was wearing his armor and Ranma had to wonder where he'd gotten the replacement cape. He still looked like a Darth Vader otaku though. "Ranma, get up."

Ranma and Sheila slowly climbed to their feet, suppressing a groan of pain as they moved around. "You didn't have to tackle me like that."

"Sorry." Sheila muttered.

Nearby, just out of sight and watching from behind a fallen bit of stone, B snickered. Inside the little Peebo certain programs were activating that even B wasn't aware existed. Hard wired programs that Brianna installed for emergencies where it was possible that someone might be killed. Being Ranma's protector, though reluctantly, B's observation of Ranma had changed since being released earlier.

The little bot's body started to change slightly as it slowly blended in with the walls around it. Seconds later it faded from sight and started to move forward and observe the upcoming fight. Its eyes recorded a digital copy of everything and a gun popped out of its back. Brianna's secret weapon was ready to go.

As Ranma shook his head and noticed that Rook was just standing there as if he was bored. For some reason Ranma felt like smirking, the armored moron didn't know what was going to happen in the next few minutes. Even Julia, Gar, and Thropan didn't look like they were worried about him even though they were tense.

"Rook." Ranma said, finally getting his first good look at the monster that set all this in motion.

"Well is it that time again?" Rook said mildly.

"Rook, you need to stop this madness. You've ruined countless lives today it's time for it to stop." Julia told him as she held her sword forward. She had to give him a chance to back down even if she knew he would never take it.

Thropan and Tirga took up positions on either side of her with their weapons at the ready. They all watched as a small thing, somewhat humanoid, walked over to stand in front of Rook and looked them over as if they weren't worth his time.

Ranma looked down at the thing in confusion, he wasn't sure what to think of the little thing. He could tell that the little thing was very dangerous though and it made him nervous.

"It's an Imp." Thropan gasped. The hint of disgust in Thropan's voice was all Ranma needed to know that the thing wasn't going to be fun to fight.

"How do we stop it?"

"Imps come in various levels, regular ones are about as dangerous as skeletons and easier to kill. On the other hand Imps are creatures that gain power from those that create them, so the older it is, the stronger it becomes. This one is quite old. You can tell by the size of its horns."

Just looking at the thing gave Ranma a queasy stomach. It appeared to have gray skin similar to an elephant, wrinkled beyond compare. A pair of large bulbous eyes that waggled drunkenly about on short stalks that sprouted from the thing's head.

A pair of pitch-black horns curved around the back of its head, twisted, and came back around to that two points brushed along its shoulders. The thing wasn't even wearing any clothing except for a tiny loincloth and a belt with a knife set into the arch of its hunched back.

"I expected so much more resistance than this Julia. I'm rather disappointed even after taking out that first fighter you sent in here. He at least got in a couple of good hits, but he's gone now. Just as the rest of you will be."

"We won't go down easily Rook, just stop this mess and let things get back to normal. Seer's Hamlet can't take much more."

"That's exactly what I wanted!" Rook yelled, raised a glowing hand, and the whole Palace started to shudder beneath their feet.

The group stayed right where they were and managed to stay on their feet as everything shook itself apart. Paintings fell off the walls, some of the staircases fell and sent echoes throughout the whole building. Back down on the lower floor, in Goldwave's lair, piles of gold collapsed onto several paladins.

The Imp just smirked at them as the constant red energy that filled the room increased as the shaking dwindled down. Outside, more leaves started to fall off the branches and the beam rising into the sky increased in power. Lightning fell from the dome and slammed into the ground around the High Palace.

Large chunks of wood were carved from the tree by the lightning, ripping tons of branches from the Tree. They rained down on the city below, crushing several houses. Survivors of the undead army fled from the falling debris. Paladins still roaming the streets below did what they could to lesson the damage, but they had no warning that something like this might happen.

After several seconds Rook lowered his hand. "That is just a sample of what I can do now that I've taken control. All of you are wasting your time, back down and I might kill you quickly."

Ranma barely managed to stay on his feet as a wave of agony ripped through his body. He felt like someone had just carved several large holes from his head with an axe. Sheila tried to comfort him, but he growled and shook her off. Shaking his head, Ranma's eyes started to glow.

"The last twenty four hours have been a living nightmare. Undead monsters, endless fights, and everything else that has happened. I thought I'd never get tired of fighting, but this is too much even for me. Rook, you are a going to die." Ranma growled as he started to draw magic into his body as an incredible rate.

"What are you doing?" Rook asked as he felt all the magic around them starting to quickly dwindle down to a trickle.

An aura of magic formed around Ranma, flowing around him like a blanket of light, his eyes glowing brightly as they stared at Rook. "This fight ends today even if I have to rip you apart one piece at a time."

Julia and the others quickly baked off as their clothing started smolder under the effects of the aura. Ranma was wearing a transformed mage suit and it swiftly morphed back into its skintight version. He barely noticed as a ball of blue fire formed in hands.

Even Sheila was amazed at the amount of magic swirling around Ranma as he focused his power. "Woah…"

"Imp, kill them all." Rook ordered.

"I'd be happy to." The little monster said as it raised its hand and snapped its fingers.

Fires throughout the room flared to the ceiling and quickly formed into fire elementals. Rook laughed as he saw the three members of the Edge Guard pale at the sight. "I sacrificed the souls of the remaining council members to complete my plan. Right now they aren't needed anymore so the imp here is going to use them instead."

"Fire Elementals." Tirga growled. His weapon would be completely useless against the things.

"I can take them out." Sheila said as the thing started to form into a group of five humanoid shaped flames.

"Good." Ranma said. "That leaves the armored jerk for me."

"Ranma we need to work together…" Julia said.

The pigtailed boy ignored her as he absorbed the ball of blue fire into his body and started to stalk towards Rook. At the same time the elementals, hovering off the ground, floated towards them with inhuman screams. Rook backed into the council room as the elementals left and watched Ranma curiously. He wasn't sure what Ranma had in mind.

"You don't actually think you can beat me do you?"

An elemental suddenly went for Ranma, but it exploded into a wave of fire five feet from Ranma as it touched Ranma's aura. The aura seemed to grow just tiny bit larger as well. Rook watched the elemental struggled to reform itself as Ranma turned to glare at it, then back at Rook. "Enough of this."

Glareing, Rook realized as he was about to attack that the level of ambient magic that he'd collected inside the room was diminishing quickly. He could feel it swirling around Ranma like a hurricane. The energy battered at Rook's armor as they stared at each other. That meant that casting his deadlier spells wasn't going to work while Ranma was using all the magic in the room.

Ranma threw his hand forward, his aura flaring into the visible spectrum. "Wind."

"Idiot!" Rook yelled, surprised by the use of such a simple spell, and quickly formed a basic shield. "I expected better of a magic user as strong as you."

Smirking, Ranma felt the air around them rippling as it suddenly surged around him. Two of the elementals screamed as they were extinguished under the force of the wind. Rook was picked up like a rag doll and tossed across the room. Just as he was about the hit the wall he vanished in a burst of light.

Ranma started to turn his head and look for Rook when he felt a punch to the middle of his back. He staggered forward and turned to see Rook standing there, an evil glint in his eyes.

"You don't understand do you?"

"You'll pay for that." Ranma snapped as his aura flared again. This time he threw a punch, even though he was several feet from Rook, and sent a sphere of blue light at the black armored monster.

Rook batted it out of the air and into a nearby wall with a flick of his hand. "Gotta to better than that moron."

Ranma glared at him, his mind running through hundreds of different ways to attack. Behind Rook he could see the others fighting the fire elementals as hard as they could. Sheila was holding them off, but he could sense that her sword was too damaged to last much longer.

She was in danger.

His aura flared and Ranma vanished. Half an instant later Rook staggered back as Ranma attacked him physically, raining blow after blow down on his chest and head, denting the hell out of the armor. The pummeling ended with a spinning back kick sent the armored knight into the wall headfirst just as Rook vanished in a burst of light.

Ranma twisted and dropped purely on instinct as the light appeared behind him and Rook appeared, sword in hand, swinging it around with expert skill. "You piece of filth! You will pay for that!"

Smirking, Ranma rolled to his feet and counter attacked. He slapped the blade in mid arch and palm punched the armor right in the chest. It connected with a flare of blue light. Rook staggered back several steps, his chest plate was shattered completely.

The armored Knight stared down at the damage. "You weren't able to do this in our last fight."

"I wasn't fighting all out then." Ranma said as they started to circle.

"You are a fool. There is no way you can beat me no matter how much damage you do to my armor."

"I will take you apart one chunk at a time if I have to." Ranma said.

Rook's sword spun around in his hand a couple of times as they moved. He brought it around and made a wild strike. "RAKER!"

A wave of energy sailed at Ranma. His eyes widened and jumped straight up and attached himself to the ceiling as the energy slammed into the wall and sliced through it with ease. Then the whole wall groaned and collapsed. On the other side was the staircase that led to the front door.

Rook cursed and he flicked his other hand and another sword appeared. His armor flared with energy and Ranma noticed that the floor of the room was covered in a glowing red pentagram. At each tip of the star was a burning bonfire and they were fighting in the center of it all.

Dropping, Ranma spun around and thrust his hands forward. "Flame!"

A wave of fire fired from his hands as his body absorbed magic from all around them and channeled it into the spell. A wall of fire slammed into Rook, who crossed his swords in front of him.

"Ahaa!"

Ranma landed and snapped his arms around, making the fire rise up into the air, curve around, and envelop Rook completely. Then he gritted his teeth and poured even more power into the attack, turning the flames into white fire. After several seconds Ranma had to stop and gasp for air and growled under his breath. He could still sense Rook inside the raging fire.

He walked from the flames as if the slightly melted stone under his feet meant nothing. "Not bad, but it was still a pathetic attempt. I'm the most powerful being on this planet boy. Don't you understand that? Every time anyone in Seer's Hamlet dies they turn undead and I get their life force."

Ranma ignored him and started to pull in more magic.

"I'M A GOD NOW!" Rook yelled and held his blades high. "I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT!"

Ranma decked him hard enough to throw him off his feet. "Shut the hell up and fight!"

----------

The imp yelled orders as the fire elementals swarmed down the hallway, a wave of heat flowing before them that set several of the nearby tapestries on fire. Julia, Gar, Thropan, Tirga, and Sheila scrambled to get out of the way. Of all the opponents they would have to fight none of them had expected to take on an elemental.

"This is the kind of thing we need Theo for!" Julia yelled.

"He's not here, deal with it!" Sheila yelled, slightly irritated as the whole situation. She could see Ranma and Rook fighting each other just down the hall, throwing around magic strong enough to kill anybody that got close. She brought her sword around and sent a sheet of icy energy at one of the nearest fire elementals.

It screeched as the ice seemed to form around its flaming body. The other elementals didn't even seem to realize that one of them was attacked. Instead they all slowed down and started to radiate more and more heat as they drew closer.

Thropan brought his weapons around and fired it into the floor, ripping a hole in the stone and sending one of the elementals into the halls below them. "We need a plan!"

"We need Onoli!" Thropan yelled. "He's got the swords that will work on these things!"

"Onoli isn't here, it's just us, so get a move on." Julia snapped. Her sword spiraled around her in a dance of death as she moved through the elementals. Sheila stayed as close to everyone as she could and used her weapon to radiate cold.

It was affecting the elementals, but not enough to keep them more than a few yards away. Tirga's teeth were chattering as he brought his whip to bare, unsure how to attack the things.

"My sword is melting!" Julia yelled as she backed away from a couple of the elementals.

"So is the floor." Yelled a voice at her feet.

She looked down to see a Peebo. It grinned at her.

"Hello grandma." B said. "Brianna asked me to help protect Ranma and all his friends. If you and the others will give me a good place to attack I can take these things out."

'Grandma?' Julia thought to herself. She was really going to have to sit down and talk to Brianna about some of these robots one day. Bad enough they tended to blow up everything in sight. "We're too confined in here for you to blow up."

"I'm not going to. I have a special weapon I can fire, but I can only do it once." B explained, more polite to its grandma.

"What is it."

"I'm not allowed to say, but if we pull this off right I can take these things out as well as the big meany down the hall there."

"B!" Sheila yelled as she spotted him at Julia's feet.

"Everyone, start to back down the hall. B is going to fire a weapon at the elementals and Rook." Julia said. She waved at Ranma and made several hand signals that he acknowledged with a wave as he flipped over Rook. "Move, Move, Move!"

The edge guard did as they were told, although Tirga felt like he was useless in this fight. Thropan watched in fascination as the back of the little robot opened up and a miniature disk of some kind rose out, sparking with energy.

Ranma heard his computerized bracer beeping at him, but since he was currently fighting off Rook's magically enhanced attacks he didn't have a chance to check and see what it was. He ducked and weaved his way through Rook's attack and tried to maneuver him into position.

"I'm the baddest Peebo you will ever see!" B yelled as a betatech phantom ring formed in front of his little body, spinning almost faster than the eye could see.

Thropan paled, an amazing thing to do since he is covered in black fur, and ran forward past Julia and slammed his chucks into the floor and made all the blocks rise up and form a wall.

"Thropan?!" She yelled.

"Why didn't you tell me that little monster could form SHADOW RINGS?!"

Julia looked confused for a second before she paled, turned on her heel and ran. "Run for your lives!"

B's amplified laughing suddenly filled the hall as the ring started to expand, forming more rings in the center. The fire elementals were starting to recover from Sheila's weapon and surged forward, their arms reaching out to grab the only thing there.

Listening to B's laughter, which reminded Ranma of Brianna way more than he liked, he risked a glance down the hall to see a growing mass of spinning shadow like disks forming around his little friend. Just as he fired.

"DUCK MORON!" B yelled as he fired.

"OH S#!#$#!" Ranma yelled, closed his eyes, and vanished just as Rook began to realize that something was wrong.

"Coward!" Rook yelled as billions of miniature shadow rings fired down the hall. They ripped the fire elementals to shreds in milliseconds and set of a massive explosion of magic as they died.

The imp vanished in a puff of smoke even as its lower body was removed from its top half. Its screams could be heard even after it was gone. And Rook could only stare in shock as a wall of death made its way down the hallway and expanded out ward, spreading throughout the east side of the Palace.

From the outside Julia and the others were just racing down the stairs and out the front door, as over half of the High Palace seemed to just silently detonate. Rings of shadow swirled outward chewing up large portions of the Palace in a matter of seconds. These were quickly followed by massive fireballs that consumed several more sections of the building.

What wasn't vaporized was sent high in to the air and started to rain down on them seconds after the destruction was over. Everyone did what they could to cover themselves. Within seconds a massive fire was raging through what was left of the Palace.

"RANMA!" Sheila screamed as she realized that he was still inside the building.

Tirga gaped at the sight before him, for once shocked at the level of destruction that had taken place. "How can something so small cause all that?"

"Shadow Rings." Thropan said, his eyes filled with awe and fear. "I never expected to see such a thing in my life. I've read about the weapon, but even then it was only a legend. How could anybody resurrect such a dangerous thing?"

Julia winced and decided that mentioning Brianna wouldn't be such a good idea right now.

"What are Shadow Rings?"

"They are what the Shadows used to execute entire towns." Thropan explained. "Entire cities were whipped form the face of the planet with just one of those things."

Tirga growled. "Did that guy make it out of there?"

"I'm not sure." Julia said as she looked around.

"We have to find Ranma!" Sheila yelled as tears started to form in her eyes.

Thropan and Tirga looked at each other. "Sheila…"

"I'm fine."

They whirled around to see Ranma sitting on the ground. Sheila tackled him and burst into tears. He froze up for a second before hugging her. "I managed to teleport out of there right before the wave hit me."

Julia looked quite relieved to see him as well. "I didn't know you could teleport."

"Never tried before, just knew a little bit about it from what Dr. Diggers told me." Ranma explained.

"But that should have been impossible…the city is still under siege. All portals, teleporting, and anything else are blocked until the council resets the magic that keeps Seer's Hamlet hidden." Thropan said.

"They must be down then. Otherwise it would never have worked." Ranma said. He could vaguely recall punching through some kind of magic barrier as if it was a wet paper bag. However, beyond that he was just happy to be safe. He sighed.

"What's wrong Ranma?"

"I lost another fight." He snapped.

"I couldn't even stop the moron before B fired that stupid weapon of his."

"Cut that out, Rook has never been this dangerous before. I don't think anyone could have taken him out in a one on one fight." Julia snapped.

Ranma glared at her. "I'm tired of losing every time I fight someone. I took everything I had to beat Garfield when we fought, and Daishi nearly killed me in our fight after Jusenkyo."

"Ranma all of these fighters have been training in ways you can't imagine." Julia started.

"Don't give me that, I've been through hell for my training. Nearly ten years of no holds bared fighting, walking all over the world, and for what? To get my ass kicked by every nobody that comes along?" Ranma snapped as he stood and helped Sheila to her feet.

"Ranma…" Julia said, realizing that Ranma had some problems to work out.

"We'll talk later, Master." Ranma said as he headed for the stairs by himself. "I need to be alone for awhile."

"What's wrong with him?" Sheila asked.

"Ever since I started training him Ranma has been in several fights against people he's never encountered before. Strong fighters that have beaten him. In the end he has come back and beat them in a rematch, like he did with Daishi and Hanza."

"I don't understand." Sheila said with a little frown, although it was obvious that Thropan and Tirga understood.

"His pride is wounded." Thropan said.

"It's a little more than that." Julia corrected him. "Ranma's father can be best described as scum. The man is has no concept of parental caring, he spent nearly a decade teaching Ranma how to fight by abusing the boy and never once showing him any signs of love. It affected Ranma quite a bit"

"On top of that, Ranma has more potential as a fighter than anyone I've ever seen. He can absorb and learn techniques in an instant if he has to. Like him teleporting. Theo never even taught him that and wouldn't have for at least another year or so."

"His father taught Ranma to be the best fighter ever and that losing was worse than death. Ranma would rather face death than lose another fight."

Sheila gasped. "I hadn't realized it went that deep."

"Ranma is a fighter Sheila, like a lot of men, it's his whole life." Tirga said, patting her on the shoulder.

"Ranma can't understand just how strong he is. Everyone that has defeated him has either been enhanced with magic like Hanza was or like Daishi, a very talented fighter." Julia explained.

"Do you think he will do something stupid?"

Julia thought about it for a second and shrugged. "This is Ranma, he has a tendency to be unpredictable."

----------

About an hour later Ranma was sitting on the edge of the staircase looking out over the shattered city below him. In the pitch-black night he could see the thousands of fires raging in the city below. A part of him wanted to go down there and help everyone out as he'd been trained to do.

Another part of him just didn't care. Over the last few months he had come to realize that he couldn't do everything by himself. This latest fight really had him worried. He hadn't had a chance to fully engage Rook because of the close quarters of the council room, and then B had sacrificed himself to fire off that weapon of his.

Yet another fight that ended with no obvious winner. He was supposed to be the best. His old man told him had told him that ever day of his life. It's what all the sacrifices were for after all. Ten years of practicing martial arts twenty-four hours a day, never taking a break, always practicing or learning something. And he still couldn't call himself the best.

He didn't want to think about what else his old man would have put him through over the last few months. Julia had managed to teach him more in the last few months than he'd learned in the last two years. New moves, better control, and a whole hell of a lot better than he ever was. After all that he was still ending up on the losing end of a fight.

Ranma sighed and stared at his hand as best he could. Sometime during the last fight he had injured a couple of his fingers. It would take him days to heal all his injuries he sustained fighting Rook. He reached deep inside himself and let his Ki loose just a little.

His hand flared with energy, quickly forming his Ki claws. Of everything he'd learned this had to be the most potent and dangerous technique he had in his arsenal and he was beginning to think that it might just his greatest weakness as well.

A crutch technique. A martial artist wasn't supposed to depend on any one move. Anything could be used to fight with, one just had to use it to their advantage without being dependent on it. Like the way a swordsman was useless without their sword.

The same applied to his magic he realized. By learning everything from Dr. Diggers and Julia he wasn't following the tenets of his school anymore. He was depending on the things Julia had taught him for nearly everything. Sure he still used the core moves of his school, but he couldn't recall the last time he used an Anything Goes secret move.

He let the claws vanish and continued to stare at his hand for a minute as he brooded. For the next several minutes he just sat there slowly reviewing his memories of the last few months. His fight with Ryan, the Amazon's strange customs, and the fight with Daishi.

All of it pointed to the fact that he needed to fix is life. It didn't help that he needed to get to Nali's clinic. Rook and Dracolich had really screwed him over. He could ignore the pain for now, but it would have to be taken care of shortly. From the feel of it he even had a couple of cracked ribs.

"Ranma!"

He looked up to see Sheila running over to him looking concerned. "Yo."

She stopped and smiled at him. "You look like crap."

"Oh ha ha, I feel like it too."

"Can you make it down the stairs without help?"

"Yeah." He said and climbed to his feet and saw that the others were following along behind Sheila.

"You feeling better Ranma?" Julia asked.

He nodded.

Sometime later they all reached the bottom of the staircase and saw that the surviving paladins were back in control. Several of the scantily clad girls from Leep's school were standing guard near the entrance to the palace. They waved at Julia as they left the building.

"Everything under control?" Julia asked.

"Yes Ma'am, Master Leep is still at the library with several of the advanced students making sure things are running smoothly."

"I'll be sure to stop by."

They nodded as they headed into town. Ranma could smell the smoke from several nearby fires in the air. "Who's taking care of the fires?"

"Now that the undead army is dealt with the people are slowly taking their town back. It's going to take months to recover from this, perhaps even a year or two."

Sheila sighed and nodded. "The Edge Guard are going to be quite busy for a while."

"Yeah and with two of us down things are going to be harder." Tirga said. "Gar better get back on his feet soon."

Thropan just sighed and looked around. "I think we need to make sure that the regular criminals aren't running around as well."

"We have to sleep you know." Sheila snapped. "I'm about ready to drop. This has been the never ending day."

"Our duty comes before sleep." Thropan commented.

Sheila sighed.

"Besides, the compound burned down to the ground. We don't have anywhere to sleep at the moment." Thropan said and shrugged his shoulders. "You also have to get the sword of yours fixed."

"It's still usable."

"It's about to fall apart!"

"It just needs some polishing." She snapped, holding her beloved sword and ignoring all the little cracks in the blade.

"I told you that you had to be careful with it when using that higher level of magic."

She sniffed and turned away, walking a little faster. Julia just shook her head as they turned down a street and headed for Nali's clinic. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Ranma let out a little sigh of relief and started limping a little.

A group of bandaged men suddenly stumbled out of Nali's clinic as they approached. Pushed out the front door by Nali herself as she made room for the people that were truly injured and had to stay. She spotted them coming and shook here head.

"Julia, you aren't hurt are you?"

"A little, but nothing to bad. Ranma here on the other hand needs some potions to get him back to normal."

The old healer eyed Ranma for a second and nodded. "I can give you a few minutes, but I have others that are much more wounded that he is."

Julia nodded. "I understand. Ranma wouldn't want to stay anyway."

"Just get rid of the pain and I'll be fine in a couple of days." Ranma said and shrugged, winced, and started to pretend he didn't feel any pain.

Nali laughed as he walked into the clinic. "Stay here!"

Seconds later she came back out and handed two potions to Ranma. "Drink both of those and give the bottles back."

Ranma eyed them for a second before downing both of them in quick order. By the time the second potion was empty he was feeling a lot less pain. "Thanksh." He slurred.

"What did you do?!" Sheila yelled as she suddenly had to support Ranma to keep him from falling down.

"Dwarven ale." Nali said and grinned. "Along with a mild pain reliever. Combined they can put anyone to sleep for at several hours at least. Now get out of here, I'm busy."

The healer stalked back into her clinic and slammed the door shut. Sheila suddenly shifted into her human form and lifted Ranma to her shoulder. She looked a bit miffed as she glared at the door. "I should make her pay for that."

"Well Ranma did need to get some sleep and I think the rest of us do to. A few hours at least. Let's find a park or something and grab a few hours sleep." Julia said.

----------

A few hours later Ranma woke up to a sensation that caused him to freeze up for several seconds. He looked down at his chest to see two things, the first was that he was still wearing his skintight mage suit that left nothing to the imagination. The second was that Sheila was using his chest as a pillow as she snuggled up next to him.

She was in her werejaguar form once more and had somehow managed to sleep with him without waking him up. Glancing to the side he saw that Tirga and Thropan were also sleeping in the grass nearby along with about a dozen other people. All of them looked like they were here for various reasons.

Standing nearby, the sun gleaming off his red armor, was a paladin. Sighing, Ranma sat up and gently lay Sheila on the ground before he stood up. Glancing at the sun he figured it was early morning, just after sun up. Yawning, Ranma did a few stretches.

His head was a little fuzzy, but he was alert enough to see that three quarters of the city was in ruins. As he was about to turn back to the others and see if they were alright, Ranma spotted a couple of people heading in their direction. A few seconds later the paladin spotted them as well and saluted as they arrived at the park.

"Gar, Onoli." Ranma said as they looked in his direction.

The two of them were covered in bandages, had an arm in a sling, and were wearing some loose clothing. Gar walked over to Ranma. "Good morning Ranma."

"Morning."

"I'm too injured to fight right, maybe we can do it later." Gar said with a little smile.

"Quite alright, I'm in a bit of pain myself." Ranma said.

"I'm glad to see you survived out little war." Onoli said and looked over at the rest of his team sleeping in the grass.

"You to Onoli, we never got a chance to meet the first time." Ranma said and shook the guy's hand.

Gar looked a little embarrassed as he stood there. "I have…have to apologize for my actions Ranma. I can't believe that I fell for such a spell."

"Forgiven." Ranma said, deciding that he didn't want to get these people mad at him. He was too tired to fight at the moment anyway.

"Thropan! Tirga! Sheila!" Onoli said in a commanding tone of voice. "Time to get up!"

The three Edge Guard members, Julia, and several other people jumped to their feet looking around for a fight. Smiling a little the werelion walked over to them and looked to see how injured they were. "Tirga, as always you make it through the fight without a scratch."

The weretiger smirked a little. "Of course, I'm a prime piece of meat that no woman can resist!"

Sheila snorted as she walked over to Ranma and ignored Tirga as he watched her. "So Ranma are you feeling better today?"

"Much better, but I'm still a little sore and my arm is killing me." Ranma said and examined his left arm.

"We can have Nali take a closer look at it this morning if you want." She said as she took a closer look at his arm.

"Naw, I'll make a sling for it here in a little while if it continues to hurt like this."

"Yeah that might be a good idea. Nali has been quite busy lately and a bit of a grouch."

"Gar!" Sheila yelled as she ran over to Gar and gave him a hug. "I didn't think you would be up for a while yet."

"I'm on light duty for now." He explained. "I'm not even supposed to be walking around, but Nali doesn't know what happened to the compound so she kicked us out."

"You should've told her."

"Naw, we can use some of the rooms at the base palace for a few weeks until the compound is rebuilt."

"I hate that place." Sheila muttered and made a face.

Gar laughed. "We started out there and all our rooms are still there so it won't cause any problems."

"Anybody know what happened to Raphiel?" Onoli asked suddenly and everyone got real quiet.

"Was he hurt?" The werelion asked, frowning a little.

"The one that could answer that was taken out by Rook a few hours ago." Julia said. "I only heard a little, but it seems that Hanza attacked the compound with several Undead Knights while you were at the High Palace. Ashaton Chaos was in the area and went to help Raphiel out and the two of them took quite a beating. In the end Raphiel was killed, but instead of dying his body disintegrated and all it left behind was that weird puzzle piece."

Onoli sighed and appeared for a few seconds to be quite a bit older than he really was. "This has been a very bad battle for the whole city. I don't think there is a family in the city that hasn't lost someone to that horde."

"Dr. Diggers has Raphiel's piece Onoli. He called it a Soul Fragment but I wasn't quite sure what he meant by that." Thropan said. "Ashaton told me about it before he went off and got killed by Rook."

"We need to honor him in some way. I've been hearing his name all over the city this morning. Some were even saying he was a werecheetah."

"I never saw anything like that, but he had some strong magical items with him." Thropan said, thinking back to their talk.

"He's human as far as I can tell." Sheila said. "Remember he was the one that saved my life from those Undead Knights."

"Is his body still up top?"

Thropan and Tirga shrugged. "No one ever found his body."

"I'll have one of the surviving mages look into it." Onoli said. "Oh, The Giant Clan will also be here in a few hours to help us finish clearing out the city Julia. I thought you would like to know that your mother is on her way."

The red headed fighter frowned a little at the news. "Thank you, I'll be looking forward to her arrival."

Onoli nodded. "Let's head over to the lower palace and see if they have managed to get things settled down a bit."

----------

Earth Realm: Japan, Nerima Ward

There were only a few clouds in the sky as they passed in front of the full moon as shown down on crowded streets below. Street lights lighting up the sidewalks for the occasional pedestrian.

If there existed a stranger place on all of Japan, it would have a hard time comparing in to this place. The only one that even came close was the Tomobiki ward, which neighbored Nerima just a few miles to the south. There existed no place more filled with weirdness and chaos than these two places.

Weirdness from one seemed to cross over into the other on a daily basis at times. The residents of both had learned, long ago, to cope and adjusted to the chaos that permeated both wards. Most families just lived with it as a normal part of their lives and were a lot healthier for it.

On this particular night there would be a sight so strange, so odd, that the residents of Nerima would be talking about it for years to come. A sight like this wasn't seen very often and even then it was quickly forgotten, but not this.

Witnesses to this event would be few and far between, but those that do witness it would be struck dumb by the sheer weirdness of it. Even the Oni Princess of Tomobiki wouldn't top the scales with her normal form of wackiness this night. How can simple alien and her friends compare to the chaos that walked the streets of Nerima?

No, this night would belong to a shadow down there among the houses that bordered Nerima and Tomobiki as it alighted from one shadowed alcove to another with the skill of a master thief, never making a sound. At first its form is hard to describe because it's too fast to make out, but after a second of study one will be able to tell that it is a simple man. A rather roguish looking man wearing a dirty white gi, a pair of glasses, and no shoes whatsoever.

His gi is about two sizes to big and gives him the impression that he is fat and out of shape, but this is nowhere near the truth. This man's belt, a sign of his martial arts rank, is completely black, black with grime and sweat achieved through hard training. Years of effort and practice were needed to make a belt look like this.

The dirt of the world from a lifetime of martial arts study and training. His skill can be seen in the way he sticks to the shadows and walks down the street when there isn't any place to hide. He blends in perfectly as he stalks his prey this night.

He is a large man by most standards as well, and as he passes near a street light there is a gleam as light reflects off his glasses. Just enough to reveal an aged face and a baldhead covered in a white scarf tied on with long strings that hang down his back where he carries a large backpack rests.

This shadow, this man, ducks into the shadowed lee of a wall as he spots what he is looking for down the street this late night and smirks, revealing gleaming white teeth. He steps behind a set of trashcans and scans everything around him to make sure he has every little detail covered so that there are no surprises.

He is a master at what he does.

Checking the straps on his pack he takes a second to make sure that they are secured tightly, for if he lost his pack he would be in for a world of hurt that would not do. He has plans to set up, plans that would be followed no matter what if he was to survive this night. No, taking a second to make sure everything was in working order wasn't even a problem.

A life time of training allowed him to move so quietly that he could move though the most dangerous places in Japan without being caught, but he had to have the right motivation to do so. That motivation, just down the street, was waiting or his arrival. They just didn't know it.

Oh yes, he understood that completely and wished he could pay his respects to the Dread Master once more just to 'thank' him properly. He sniffed the air and focused his eyes on his goal, now less than twenty feet away. Surprisingly, even this late at night there were a few men around his goal, talking amongst themselves and laughing quietly.

He hoped they would leave soon or there might be a few problems to deal with that he didn't' want to deal with. Witnesses. Then he suddenly had an idea and his 'inner self' agreed with him as it gurgled in need. It had been days since he last had a chance like this and he wasn't about to just give it up, the hunger was upon him once more and his eyes gleamed as they took in the glory that was a portable food cart and it's customers waiting for their food.

Reaching out to test the weight of a trashcan he decided to use plan 4, one that he developed just for this type of situation. It had one drawback and that was that he had to wait for his chance, but that was rarely all that long with one of these carts.

Grinning evilly Genma Saotome, the old man, the old fart, Sensei, and even hey you, counted down the seconds. His stomach growling a little louder as he waited and watched as the guy working the cart started to set out several bowls of ramen for his customers on a serving tray.

He was moving before he completely formed a thought to do so, a metal trash can raised above his head as he launched almost twenty feet into the air in a graceful arch that only a master of martial arts could achieve with years of training.

His eyes gleamed as he descended right on target, the wind whipping at the loose portions of his oversized gi, and threw the trash can out to crash into the wall beside the cart. It made incredibly loud banging sound that startled everyone into looking in the direction of the can, he landed right in front of the cart, grabbed the tray with an added bonus of a few drinks and cookies.

Then he launched into the air, bounced off the top of the cart, onto a nearby roof, and ran for all he was worth. As a master thief he didn't spill a drop of his newly acquired traveling supplies as he ran and bounced along faster than any teenager in existence. To drop any of it would have been unprofessional and inexcusable.

Within in minutes he was miles form the cart. He landed in an over grown back yard of someone's house. Looking around was enough to see that he had nothing to worry about, so he sat down and snarfed down one of the four bowls of ramen and one of the drinks as he rested. Minutes later he had eaten everything and patted his stomach, now that he was full for a few hours he could focus on his real problems and not his over active stomach.

Reaching into his gi he pulled out the letter that he had found pinned to his face a few months before telling him about his son's kidnapping. He had searched all over that mountain for days trying to find the ungrateful bastard and come up empty handed and tried to get to America where the note had said to come and get him, but delay after delay had cropped up since then and eventually he was forced give up for a little while.

First he tried to get there by boat, been caught as a stowaway, and tossed overboard. The Captain had been nice enough to tell him which way land was and had told him to swim home. After eating a few raw sharks along the way, he sold the teeth for a few yen.

He even tried to fly there in the baggage compartment of a large plane, but when they landed in America he had been found passed out from the lack of air and after a visit to the doctor instantly deported back to Japan before he even woke up.

So close and yet so far away, but he would find the boy and make him do what he was raised to do. Secure his retirement and give him lots of grandkids to train in the art.

Now he was still a couple months from the time when Ranma would be done with this supposed training and wondering if he should try again or wait until the time came or make another attempt to get him back.

He sniffed the air and salivated as he smelled a well prepared curry dinner in the making. Now where was it coming from…time for the Anything Goes Secret Attack: Sniff and Destroy Technique.

Grinning he vanished into the nearest shadow.

----------

The End...Of the Jade Saga

End Notes – Thank god the Jade saga is over and done with. I haven't had a bout of writers block this bad since I was working on Strange Days and that took me a year and half to finish off. Now that things are a bit calmer I can explain some things.

I must say I'm sorry for making this stupid section of the story as long as it has been and all the useless parts I added. At the time they all just seemed to fit in just perfectly and added a good laugh here and there.

Let's do a bit of a run down here to cover everything in case I was too vague in the story. The first thing that must be explained is that the last three chapters were a condensed version of what I was originally planning to do. As things went along I started to add more and more to the story until it just got out of control.

Because I condensed things so much I was able to pull this story back together before it flew apart completely. I can even recall a couple of scenes I should seriously modify but I doubt anyone will spot them though. Now let's talk about the characters and offer some explanations:

Can you say Ashaton Chaos? Yep, his bit part exploded into something even I didn't expect and I ended up getting emails asking me to kill the character off. That was a bit harsh but it told me a lot of what people thought of the guy. Believe it or not I toned him down to a manageable level for this story, his original form is a walking god of unstoppable power. I tried to humanize him to balance the story and that led to his larger than expected scenes. In this final chapter Rook didn't kill the guy, instead he banished Ashaton from Jade. Ashaton isn't my character to kill so I couldn't do it.

The edge guard are quite a group. They are like the special forces of the Jade Realm. I took quite a few liberties with them in this story, hope the fans of GD aren't too angry with me, although no one ever bothers to email, and tell me anyway. Which sucks either way. :(

I took Onoli out of this fight because he access to a major league powerful undead killer weapon. In the comic he took out a small army of the things by activating its power. One of his swords if I remember right. I couldn't have this happen, so Onoli had to take a dive.

Literally.

Gar, of all the Edge Guard, is actually the one we know the most about. He's a regular character in the comic these days and will soon be making a monthly appearance as he goes for his Master's title, a pilgrimage that will take over two to three years to complete. Gar is a 'super' class martial artist, which means that he can pull of things that lesser fighters would call impossible. As such, at this point in the story, Gar is at Ranma's level while human and beyond that when transformed. The two of them made for a good fight, which was why Gar was a temporary bad guy in this story.

Thropan, The werepanther, and all around cool guy that has a bigger following than even Tirga can pull off at any one time. As the magic user he designed their weapons and pushed the limits of legal magic with his studies of technology. He is also the rock that holds the Edge Guard together, if they lost him they would quickly fall apart.

Tirga, what can't we say about the horn dog? If it's female and cute, he's right there to take advantage of them in an instant. In the comic Tirga would like to get with Sheila, and she does like him, but his womanizing makes it impossible for her to trust him. Tirga is still sowing his oats as they say, but he will lose the girl that does like him if he doesn't get his head out of his ass. On the other hand he does have a noble heart, it's just hard to find under all those perverted thoughts.

Sheila has the most advantage in this story. I made her a little more emotional than she is in the comic, but not by much. Mostly for the romantic angle with Ranma. Ranma just has that effect on woman doesn't he?

Heh.

Ranma, this chapter actually ties together several of the story's loose ends. Many people have complained to me about how Ranma keeps losing fights or barely winning. At first this was unintentional and I was just going for good fight scenes, but after a while I kind of incorporated it into the story. With this chapter Ranma is starting to lose his over confident way of living. His ego has been bruised and he isn't taking it very well.

He experienced a life lesson with this final fight and it will bring him back down to earth a bit. A change he desperately needs after all that has happened to him since he arrived on Jade for his Date with Sheila. Expect some major changes as we head into ch 15.

Julia and Theo, they weren't used all that much in the saga, more like secondary and background characters. I had Julia tag along with Ranma so that she could be there to see him in a real fight and judge his skill and reactions. She is very worried about him at the moment because she knows how much it hurts Ranma to lose at anything. He never takes it very well.

Rook's defeat, must mention this. I didn't make it obvious some of you are probably asking yourselves why Ranma didn't blast Rook with a massive dispel magic blast as he did to Hanza. Ranma was angry at Rook for causing his whole mess and wanted to beat him in a fair fight, but in the end he did resort to small dispel magic bursts every time he punched the guy. This forced Rook to respond on a more physical level, hence the swords and his old teleporting behind the enemies back trick. Because I condensed things so much this wasn't really covered in the fight scene.

The Jade saga is OVER! No more Jade! NO more Edge Guard, I'm FREE!

CRose


	16. Chapter 15

Notes – If you can, read the Golden Opportunity Side Story before reading this chapter, or you might be a little confused about certain facts. I'll be making several references to it during the course of the chapter. It will also explain why Gina's house is being rebuilt. Lots of new stuff to be introduced in this chapter so let the fun begin.

As always, Golden Opportunity is an opened fic, which means that I have no set ending for it and each chaper or group of chapters is an 'episode' with a beginning, middle, and ending. This chapter is one complete story and give some hints at the end to what may be happening in the next chapter. Have fun reading!

oooooooooo  
Golden Opportunity  
Chapter 15  
Cory D. Rose  
(c) 2005  
oooooooooo

Ranma rolled out of bed and quickly stood up. He was wearing his usual t-shirt and boxers, but this early in the morning he wasn't that concerned. Now if it was later in the day he would have been more worried. Relaxing, he walked over to his closet, quickly picked out an outfit and got dressed.

Today he was just going to wear a simple white muscle shirt and loose black pants. Instead of his soft soled shoes though, he put on a pair of simple boots that Gina had designed for him. He wasn't entirely sure how she did it, with all the other work she had going on, but the boots were quickly growing on him.

They were made of a soft material that protected his feet. He could move around in them easily, and they were water proof. Gina had explained when she gave them to him that they had been in development for some time for her sister Britanny to protect her feet when she ran.

That meant that they could take a beating, were padded along his ankles, and could survive the friction created by a running werecheetah. That and Britanny had refused to wear them the instant she saw them. Something about black boots not going with anything she owned.

Ranma didn't mind, they were perfect and his old shoes had been wearing dangerously thin. He slipped them on, stood up, and cinched his belt tight to keep his pants up. Turning he glanced at the far wall of his room and sighed as he saw that the plastic was still there.

The reconstruction of Gina's house was taking a little longer than planned. He pulled the plastic to the side and stepped out into the back yard. Well, after dropping to the ground. His room was on the second floor after all.

Half a dozen of Gina's robots were slowly rebuilding the house. What was taking so long was that Gina was making improvements to the house every step of the way. The walls were being reinforced, the spaces between floors fitted with even more high tech wiring and devices, and even better bathrooms.

Even after two weeks Ranma was still amazed that the girl's had managed to defeat that IB character. He'd had them beaten completely, but a stroke of luck on their part won them the day. Of course the aftermath had been even worse when the house blew up.

"Ranma!"

He turned to see Julia walking towards him, her red hair standing out a little more than it usually did. Then started to sense that she was holding a lot of Ki energy in her body and it was making her glow a little. No one would have noticed it except another Ki master.

"Master Julia." He said, bowing to her.

"Things are a little busier than usual around here. Have you been studying those Ki and meditation techniques lately?"

"Not to much, just those that allow me to control the Neko-ken."

She nodded. "I wanted to talk to you about our trip to Jade."

Ranma frowned a little. "That war was horrible."

"I know, but you haven't really talked to anyone about it. Even Sheila is worried about you." Julia pointed out.

"Nothing to talk about really. We won, that's all that matters." Ranma said, sounding a little confused.

"I'm not talking about that, I meant your reaction after the fight ended."

"I don't understand."

"You were depressed Ranma, you can't fight at your best when your emotions are causing distress."

"I'm over that." Ranma insisted, looking away.

"You'll have to talk about it sometime Ranma." Julia said softly.

"I just need to be a better fighter. Right now I'm not the best. I thought I was and it's been proven to me over the last few months that I just need more training."

Julia frowned. "Ranma this isn't about being the best…"

"Name one fight where I've won without someone interfering?" Ranma snapped.

"What?"

"Everyone I've fought lately has fought me to a stand still Master Julia. Rook kicked my ass for a while and Brianna's robot took him out. I had to fight Daishi several times before I could beat him and even then I nearly died. The only person I have fought and proven myself against was Ryan Tabbot and he doesn't have much respect around here." Ranma said as he listed off his familiars. "I need to reach the next level if I'm going to be able to compete with the rest of you."

"Ranma it isn't that you win the fight, but protecting those you care about."

"You win your fights Master, all of them, easily. I can't say the same so I'm not living up to my potential or protecting the weak."

"I disagree. You protected those people from that undead monster during the war. What was its name, Jeb?"

"Sheila had to help me with him, we beat him together. Even that other girl, Hanza beat me the other day." The frustration in Ranma's voice was beginning to show.

"You are being to hard on yourself Ranma. You are one of the most talented fighters I've ever seen. Now I have a couple of moves to show you that should be incorporated into that kata I taught you last week. It will add about ten percent more power to the final attack."

As she detailed the moves, Ranma pictured them in his head to memorize them even before he performed them. They headed to the front yard where more robots were working on the some last minute details for this section of the house. Gina's underground garage was even back to normal.

oooooooooo

An alarm went off and Gina sat up with a yawn. She wasn't wearing her usual pajamas though. All her clothing was lost in the explosion, just like everyone else. So she was wearing a sheer slip that barely touched her thighs as she got out of bed.

She itched her long blond hair and wandered over to the mirror stand and grabbed her glasses. The robots were doing an excellent job putting the basics of the house back together as well as installing all the new equipment that would keep IB from ever being able to invade their system again. Even Brianna was worried about losing control of her Peebos again.

It didn't help that one of them was still running around loose and they didn't have a clue where it was. When IB rebuilt Peebo-Brit, he'd removed everything they could use to track her. Shaking her head, Gina opened a drawer and sighed as she was reminded of the clothing situation.

She pulled a yellow and green spandex body suit out of her drawer and slipped it on. Because of IB she'd lost over forty percent of her lab and nearly all her money was going into buying up materials to rebuild the house. Even Britanny was feeling the crunch.

Hearing another alarm, she wandered over to her computer and tapped a button to turn on the wall screen monitor. A larger than life picture of Ranma walking to the closet appeared. She drooled at his body as he changed clothes, saving some pictures and sending them to Brianna's computer.

Their house guest was looking yummy today. She hoped that he stayed dressed like that, it showed off his well formed muscles. The scene continued till he walked out the hole in his wall and she made a mental note to get that fixed. It would have been if she hadn't been making some special adjustments to Ranma's room.

She fantasized about Ranma for a few seconds before she shook herself out of the daydream. After taking a few seconds to pull on a pair of socks and boots, she wandered out of her room. The giant monitor flickered off as she left the room. She was going to have to find a way to make a large amount of money in the next month or they would be bankrupt, again.

Plans, she needed to see if any of her old files survived down in the sealed vaults below the house. Shaking her head, she wandered down stairs and entered her lab.

"Hello Gina." Hurt bot 1101 said as she entered.

"1101, how go the lab repairs?"

"We are 95 done, Gina." It said, motioning towards the far side of the room. "We were able to reinforce the room where the criminal Daishi is being held. He is once again safely held and should pose no problem."

"Excellent, and what about the vault access?"

"The light gate shall be operation within six hours."

Gina nodded. After IB she redesigned nearly all her equipment just to make sure he hadn't hidden a portion of himself anywhere in her systems. Even the core was going through a complete redesign and would be finished by the end of the week. All of this was being sent to Penny as well so she could protect her own systems from further tampering.

"Thank you 1101." Gina said and walked across the room to her main computer desk and started working on an idea she had for Ranma's room. She was blushing by the time she got down with it, her glasses slightly steamed up. Now all she had to do was talk Brianna into letting her access her VR set up. The machine had taken surprisingly little damage.

She cackled suddenly.

oooooooooo

In an unknown location several cities away, PeeWee 'Lord' Talon was reading some notes as he entered his own lab. He was wearing a white lab coat and had a piece of buttered toast hanging out of his mouth as he read and walked at the same time.

Walking over to a tube leaning against the wall, he glanced at the man floating inside and checked his the readings. He made a small notation and told the computer to add in some chemicals to the water. He watched as the readings changed and nodded.

His trip to Jusenkyo had been quite interesting and informative. Just by analyzing the waters he found five new life forms that had a large portion of the scientific community buzzing with anticipation. His papers on the initial discovery had earned him several million in grants to continue his genetics research.

His mother was proud of him. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. As interesting as the new life forms were, they were single celled creatures so he wasn't that interested. Their DNA structures were already in his computer database as well.

No, he had other things he was planning. The water's of Jusenkyo could transform people at a genetic level, something he hadn't reported to the scientific community. He couldn't recall ever finding anything like that outside of a lab. So he needed to find out how nature had pulled it off.

His newest 'bodyguard' was in the tank, being enhanced in several ways. He was optimistic for this one, although all his bodyguards seemed to lack the brains to tie their shoes. They seemed fine when he agreed to enhance them, then later on they would just lose the ability to think straight.

It was rather annoying.

Before his trip to Jusenkyo he'd located three people that might be willing to take over for his current team. They all had a grudge against his current team too, which made things even better. Of course they weren't scheduled to arrive for another couple of weeks though. He'd have to make sure the current morons were out doing something when they arrived.

He glanced up at the boy again. After three days in the tank the boy was finally starting to show signs of the chemicals being infused into his body. This usually took a couple of hours, but Ryoga was a marvel of human endurance and strength that even now resisted his changes.

PeeWee was impressed. He figured that Ryoga would have to be in the tank for another week, but by then he'd be the perfect weapon. With a little help form Jusenkyo of course. Now if only he could find a servant that had some brains. Why did the stupid ones always seek him out.

oooooooooo

Ranma moved through the kata at full speed, moving so fast that some of his moves couldn't be seen by the naked eye. Determination filled his eyes as he moved, jumped, kicked, punched, and flowed through ever step of the kata. Off to the side Julia watched his progress.

She was slightly concerned. In the past Ranma had picked things up fast, but he never seemed to be this serious about it. She could see the Ki filling Ranma's body as he launched into the air and performed a complicated aerial spin kick. His body was covered in sweat and it made all his muscles stand out as he moved.

All of Ranma's recent defeats had really changed him. Even the close calls seemed to hold more weight than she originally thought. It didn't help that Ranma was already showing signs of an Adept status. Every now and then he would use a move while practicing that wasn't included in the kata, but it would be a block for something she was thinking about.

His martial arts skill just continued to amaze her. She folded her arms and watched him for another twenty minutes, making him perform the kata over and over at ever increasing speeds and starting over from the beginning when he messed up even a tiny little bit. Then she lowered her arms.

"STOP!"

Ranma landed, sucking in a giant lung full of air and slowly stood. Already cooling down form the harder than normal workout. "What's next?"

"The Hiryü Shöten Ha."

"From that Amazon book we got from the library?"

Julia nodded. "I think you are about ready to learn some of those techniques. You still have those copies right?"

"No, but I memorized them. They went up with the house."

"You memorized all those books?"

Ranma nodded. "Of course, I've been thinking about them for some time. Ever since I finished my Neko-ken training."

"Good, I want you to start working on learning all three aspects of the move then. We'll start with the ability to control your emotions."

"The Soul of Ice trick?"

"Exactly."

"I've tried to do that one a few times, but haven't quite pulled it off."

"Not to worry, there's a trick to it that isn't mentioned in those books. I remember thinking about it when I read through them."

Ranma nodded.

"This is where meditation comes in handy. You need find your center, then pull your battle aura into your body and place it inside your center. This will have a dramatic effect on your Ki control once you perfect it."

"I've never heard of this one before. Even pops never mentioned anything like it while were traveling."

"He may have been keeping it a secret." Julia said, not mentioning that it was actually an adept move. "Now watch me."

A pure white aura of Ki flared around her and then seemed to flow into her body. Ranma watched in shock as Julia seemed to power up, radiating a large amount of energy as she stood there. So much that he could feel his Ki senses warning him of a serious danger. "Whoa."

Julia smirked a little. "Indeed. I usually use my Ki in this way. It amplifies everything about me. Now, once the Ki is centered and under control you need to focus on stilling your emotions, freezing them. This will make you start radiating cold energy."

As she talked the air around them started to turn colder and colder, even forming a frost on the ground.

"Now Ranma, these kinds of moves are flashy, even strong, but they also tell the enemy what you are doing. Which is why they are so rare. They're only effective against people that have no idea what you are doing. Once that happens it's just a matter of pure skill and strength."

Ranma's eyes gleamed.

"Now you practice that for a few hours. It took me a few months to figure out how to pull my Ki in so don't be to surprised if you fail."

"I'll master every move in those books."

"I hope so." Julia said, smiling a little as she saw that Ranma wasn't brooding anymore. "Now I have some phone calls to make."

"Alright." Ranma said as she walked off. It took him a few minutes to realize that she hadn't powered down or released her Ki from her center either. He filed the thought away to so that he could think about it later.

oooooooooo

"This is quite interesting." Brianna muttered as she typed, eying her computer screen.

"What is?" Ranko asked. "And why am I in this tube anyways?"

"Well, I put you in there to make sure that IB isn't influencing you anymore." Brianna explained. "Just running a scan, we'll be done in a few minutes."

"And?" Ranko said, slightly irritated.

"And, these readings are amazing. When you first came here, Gina made a number of repairs to your android body, and made some very detailed scans. According to this scan, nearly every aspect of your programming has undergone some kind of enhancement."

"I don't feel any different." Ranko said.

"Oh but you are, these readings are truly amazing." Brianna said. "They remind me of advanced AI models I've been working on for my little Peebos."

"Well let me out Brianna." Ranko said, thumping on the tube. She was just glad it wasn't filled to the brim with liquid.

"No can do. We have to make sure IB isn't hiding in your programming anymore."

"I did fight him you know."

"Yep, but he may have left a tiny bit of himself in you and we need to find it and remove it."

Ranko's eyes went dark for a split second as she performed a deep scan of her android systems. "Nothing detected."

"Of course not. We need to do a scan using an outside system, this system, now hold still. This may…pinch."

"What!" Ranko yelled.

Brianna tapped a key on her computer and Ranko felt the scan invade her body. She arched back in shock, her mouth open and her eyes wide. At the same time Brianna started to type so fast her fingers blurred from sight. About fifteen seconds later Ranko started to relax, slowly regaining her balance as the scan finished.

"There we go, all done."

"Brianna, I'm going to give you a…pinch." Ranko growled, her eyes glowing.

"Hey, hey, calm down and let me finish this. What if IB is still inside you and one day he decides to take over?" Brianna snapped.

"He's gone! I know he is." Ranko snapped. "Let me out of this tube or I'll break it."

Now Brianna was starting to think something was wrong. Before IB showed up Ranko had been naive and a little dense. Now she was acting more human than ever before. She looked over the readings again as the computer compiled all the scan information.

"Ranko, are you aware that your neural net is function at completely new level? Or that you are acting more like a human than ever before?"

"I know my mind is functioning a lot quicker than it did before. But other than that I am unchanged." Ranko explained.

"I disagree, but I think Gina needs to take a look at you, as well as Penny. These readings are astounding." Brianna muttered to herself.

"Let. Me. Out!" Ranko yelled.

"One sec, the scan is nearly finished compiling." Brianna said as she watched the computer. She nearly started drooling, then shook her head and tapped a few buttons. "Alright, we're done."

"Now let me out!" The red headed android snapped.

"Keep your panties on." Brianna snapped back as she continued to watch the screen. Then she tapped a couple of buttons and the tube lowered into the floor.

Ranko wanted to find the nearest gun and shoot Brianna as she glared. "I'd be happy to, I if I wasn't COMPLETELY NAKED!"

Laughing, Brianna tossed her a robe. "Sorry, but it's hard to scan through clothing."

After pulling the robe on. Ranko walked over to the computer and leaned down to see just what Brianna was looking at. "You're watching a video…of a sweaty Ranma? Oooh."

Reaching out, Brianna moved the mouse to turn off the real time show of Ranma's morning workout with Julia. Ranko shook her head and headed for the door. "I'm going to find some real clothes Brianna."

"Alright, I'll just make sure Ranma makes it to lunch. Maybe he'll want to play around."

"Right." Ranko scoffed as she left the lab.

Brianna's smile vanished the instant the android shut the door. Then she grabbed the phone and called Gina's lab. "Gina!"

"Brianna, I'm…busy at the moment." Gina said into the phone. She was breathing a bit heavier than normal. "Mmmmm…"

"Get your mind out of the gutter sis. You need to take a look at Ranko, she's completely changed. It's as if someone installed a completely new set of personality programs in her net."

"Ahhh…" Gina groaned, gasping for air slightly.

"Gina! Quit playing with yourself and listen to me!" Brianna yelled.

"Hey, I'm not playing with myself!" Gina yelled back. "I'm just distracted, now I'll take a look at her when I'm finished here. But I need to use your VR set up."

Brianna blinked. "Why?"

"For a project."

"Well it did survive the explosion, but still needs some minor repairs."

"How long?"

"Maybe a week. It's not scheduled for repair until several of the projects you programmed the robots for are finished." Brianna said, hinting that it was Gina's fault that the VR room couldn't be used.

"Well, I might be able to speed that up. I've got to finish writing this program though." Gina said. "Plus we have so many other things to take care of."

"Like getting some decent clothing."

"I can't help it if the explosion ruined my clothing making machine." Gina growled.

"Yeah, but now we have to go out and buy some."

"Yep, but we're low on money, so that means we have to go and explore." Gina reminded her. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Who all is going to come with us?"

"Actually, I'm going to take a trip to the place where I found Ranko. Maybe we can find out why she's acting so oddly."

"You taking Ranma?"

"Hopefully, but I haven't asked him yet."

"Well get a move on. We really need some money to pay for all this stuff." Brianna yelled. "I'll even send some Peebos along with you."

"Not to worry Bri, I was planning on bringing you and Brit along as well." Gina says. "Gotta go, Hunkma just finished his morning workout. I want to transfer this to the hard drive."

"Send me a copy!" Brianna said as she hung up.

Mornings around the house were a lot more fun these days. Something interesting, usually funny, happened whenever Ranma was around. He just seemed to create weird situations without even trying. Even Gina was a bit amazed how much trouble Ranma could get into just by sitting down to breakfast. Under no circumstances were they to ever mention the grapefruit and the spoon incident.

oooooooooo

"I gotta an interview today." Stripe said as he stood in front of the mirror and adjusted his tie. He was wearing a brown suit, the tie was back, and a pair of shiny black shoes.

Britanny hugged him and purred. She wasn't wearing anything at all, just a sheet wrapped around her. "I'm glad you were able to get that suit rented yesterday. I'm still a bit hesitant about this job though."

"I know, but The Agency will be the best place for me to use my artifacts and not have to hide them constantly."

"Even after what they pulled the other day?"

Stripe nodded. "That's the only thing that's worrying me. I didn't like how they refused to listen to anything we had to say. I talked to Agent M's director yesterday and he said that changes would be made and that they would still like me to join the team. Anyway, we need the money."

Britanny sighed. Every penny of money that was available was going into rebuilding the house. Even the emergency fund that Gina hid in case something like this happened. She was just glad that most of the underground levels had only suffered minor damage from the explosion, but the main house had been completely obliterated in the blast. "The money would be great, plus Gina does have that law suit against The Agency."

"I think that's one of the things that will get discussed today when I arrive at their office."

"You think it will cause you problems?"

"The director didn't think so and he even hinted that they would be more than willing to settle with us." Stripe explained as he finished tying his tie.

"That would be good, the faster we get the money the quicker things get back to normal."

Stripe smirked a little. "Since when is it ever normal around here? What with dog aliens showing up, or giant robots, or crazed mutants stomping their way through the house."

"Hey!"

"Gotcha." Stripe said and patted her on the head. "I'll be back tonight sometime. Then we can start planning that weekend trip you wanted to take to Eden. I bet Jetta would like to see you again."

Brittany shrugged and pulled Stripe over for a hug. "Be careful Honey, I really don't think Agent M will just drop this matter. Jetta has already said that we can visit whenever we want and says she has a house set up for us already."

"We'll see." Stripe said as they kissed and she used her tail to rub his back. Then he stepped out into the hall. He was nearly plowed over by Ranma as he bounced up the stairs. "Hey Ranma."

"Stripe, where you going?"

"I've been offered a job working for The Agency."

"Those guys that nearly leveled the house on their own?"

"Yep."

Ranma shrugged. "Good luck with that, kick that M guy's ass if he gives you any trouble."

Laughing, Stripe waved over his shoulder as he headed down the stairs and out the front door. Ranma watched him till he was out the door, then turned and headed back for his room. He needed to take a quick shower and change his clothes again.

It was almost ironic that of all the people in the house, he had the most clothing. He carried most of it with him in his pack so it wasn't in the house when it went up. Of course, the girls had all 'borrowed' most of his clothing over the last few days.

"Ranma." A voice sang behind him.

He turned to see Britanny standing there, in a sheet, trying to look innocent. Her hands were behind her back, her head tilted to the side, eyes wide, and swiveling back and forth with her large chest jutted out. "Uh…"

She leaned forward, giving him a better view of her cleavage. "Can I borrow some clothes." She asked, in a little kid voice. "Pwease."

"Ack!" Blood almost trickled out his nose.

Britanny started to laugh. "You need to mature a little Ranma." She said with a grin. "It's so easy to play with you."

"No fair." Ranma said, holding his nose and blushing.

She just grinned at him.

"I'd give you the shirt off my back, but I'm not sure that would be enough." Ranma said.

"What!" Britanny yelled.

Smirking, Ranma just grinned at her.

"Oh!" Brit snapped and stomped her foot.

Still grinning, Ranma stepped into his room and pulled a silk shirt and pants from his pack and tossed them to the girl. "I doubt you want to wear my boxers."

She caught them. "Thanks Ranma! And Eeewww!"

"Heh." Ranma laughed as Brit headed back to her bedroom. Even though she was married, it didn't stop her from messing with people's heads every now and then. Of course, he'd also given her his last clean shirt. Sighing, he ruled out his morning shower.

It would be a waste of time to put a dirty shirt back on. He'd just have to keep wearing the white muscle shirt. He spotted Ranko as she came up from the labs. For some reason she was wearing one of the robes that the girls kept in the labs.

"Hey Ranko, what's up?"

She grins at him. "Hi Ranma, how did practice go?"

"Pretty good, learned a new Ki technique."

"You going to show me?"

"Can you learn things like that?" Ranma asked.

"I'm just a copy of your female side Ranma." Ranko said, stepping a little closer to him and letting the front of her robe open just a little, giving him a peek inside.

"Ah…" Ranma muttered, suddenly nervous.

"Hmm…I'd like to keep 'up' with you." She said, leaning even closer.

Ranma started to turn red. "Well, you see…"

"You certainly are." She said with a giggle. "Want to see more?"

Ducking, Ranma moved around Ranko and almost ran across the room. Ranko turned, smiled at him, and watched as he vanished into the kitchen. Shaking her head, she continued upstairs to see if she could find anything to wear herself.

She spotted Britanny coming downstairs wearing some of Ranma's clothing and had to smirk. Ranma had more clothing than any of the girls in the house combined. Borrowing from him was a good idea. She turned and headed right for his room to see what he had left in his backpack.

Gina was also coming up the stairs, and decided to follow Ranma into the kitchen, when she spotted him. She ran a hand through her blond hair as she spotted Ranma opening the fridge door. "Not much in there I'm afraid."

Ranma nodded. "Completely empty."

"We'll have to send out for food again tonight." Gina muttered.

"When you going to get the house finished?"

"I think another week and all the improvements will be completed." Gina explained. "Though right now we're a little low on cash. So it could take quite a bit longer."

"Oh? Anything I can do to help?"

"I'm planning on a little trip to find something to bring us some cash." Gina explained. "Want to come?"

"Sure, all I'm doing right now is training anyway."

"I was planning on leaving in the morning, before sunrise, that way we can spend the day exploring."

"Who else is going?"

"Me, you, Ranko, and I think I'll bring Cheetah along as well."

"What about supplies?"

Gina sighed. "I think I'll have to borrow some from Penny. I don't like asking for help, but IB did a lot of damage. At least Penny's house didn't become a giant pile of smoldering kindling."

Shrugging, Ranma closed the fridge. "It'll work out and if we need it I'll go get a job. Same as Stripe did this morning."

Gina growled. "I don't want him working for those jerks."

"We need the money and if we can get it from the people we don't like, so be it." Ranma said with a shrug. "Anyway, The Agency seems to be going out of its way to make up for its mistake."

"Then they could pay the bills for rebuilding the house."

Ranma nodded. "True, but for now, we can still get money from them."

"I've got some more research to do, so I'll be down in my lab, I just wanted to see if you would come along."

"Where are we going to go?"

"The same place where we got Ranko. I want to finish exploring that island inside and out. There has to be something there that we can sell for money."

"Sounds like a plan. Will Penny be coming along too?"

"I don't think so, but if I use her equipment I may have to give her part of what we find." Gina explained as she covertly eyed Ranma in his muscle shirt. She had to resist the urge to reach out and touch him and reminded herself that he wasn't even eighteen yet.

She wanted to scream in frustration. How could a teenager look like a male god of muscle and perfection?

oooooooooo

Penny Pincer was on the wall screen in Gina's lab, sitting at her desk, using a similar wall screen to see Gina. The dark skinned girl was giving Gina a dirty look. Of course, she was wearing a simple pair of jeans and a blue sweater with the sleeves rolled up.

"So let me get this straight. You're broke again?"

"Well, not completely. I would have had plenty of money if the house hadn't been destroyed. I've sold several of my inventions as well, but those investments won't start making any money for another couple of months. After that I can pay you back, just like last time."

"I can't believe you're broke again." Penny muttered.

"I'm not broke!"

"Of course, but you need to 'borrow' some money and supplies to go on another treasure hunt." Penny said, smirking a little. "So, you're broke again."

"Fine!" Gina snapped. "I'm broke!"

"So long as you admit it." Penny said. "Swing by with your car, I know that still works."

"I'll be by early in the morning, about five or so."

"That's fine, I'll set everything out that you need. Just send me a list now and I'll get to work on it."

"Thanks Penny." Gina said in relief.

"Of course, I want twenty percent of whatever you find. I have repairs to make too."

Gina sighed and Penny smirked. "I'll even include some extra cash for clothing."

oooooooooo

Ranma looked out the widows as Gina's flying car started to descend through the clouds. Far below, they could see the sea. At first that was all they could see, but within a few minutes Ranma spotted the island they were looking for in the distance.

Once they spotted that Ranko moved from the back seat and looked out the front window. "I don't recall ever being here."

"You never saw the outside of the island." Gina said. "You should remember the place once we get inside."

Ranko nodded and moved back to her seat. At the same time Ranma watched the android from the corner of his eye. This was the first time he had really ever worked with Ranko before. Up till now he had just let her do her own thing and tried not to think about how she was a perfect robotic copy of his female form and skills.

He was still a little creeped out by the idea, but over time he had started to think of her as a kind of long lost sister. Ranma just sat back and waited for them to land, considering his last visit to the island, and what may happen when they arrive.

Last time they hadn't had a chance to explore something so large. At the same time he wondered if he should have stayed back at the house. Gina had insisted he come along and he was a little bored, but these adventures seemed to always end up with him in some kind of fight. A fight that was a lot harder than he would have expected.

Before they Julia had told him that he needed to be careful because he was at a delicate time in his training. Ranma wasn't sure what she had meant, but had taken the advice to heart. He would have to be twice as careful as usual while they were on this mission. When it came to the Art, he was always careful to follow any instructions given.

Training with Julia had taken on a whole new level lately and was sure that it was also why she was being so careful. He still hadn't mastered the Soul of Ice technique though. It was rather frustrating. He was used to learning things quite fast and he hadn't even made any progress on this technique even after she showed him. Now he just hoped that this mission would give him time to reexamine the technique.

The flying car suddenly altered course a little bit and leveled out just above the island. Just like last time there weren't any beaches on the island, just steep rock walls that could keep nearly anyone out. Gina quickly found the old landing sight and took advantage of it.

The car's thrusters fired, sending up a wave of smoke as it landed with a gentle thump. Since the island was really too hilly to drive over, everyone exited the car and looked around. They really hadn't had time to go shopping for clothing yet either, so Ranko and Gina wearing some very revealing clothing.

Ranma just noted the skimpy shorts and a tight tops that didn't hide anything. He just shrugged it off. It just made him think of Sheila who was currently staying at the Digger's mansion a few blocks away from the house. Gina had refused to even ask her father for money.

That also reminded him of Gar, Luan, and Carla who were due to arrive from jade in a week or so. He knew Gar and wasn't looking forward to that meeting at all. He was also one of Julia's students and she wanted him to spar with Gar. Ranma wasn't sure if Gar could keep the fight to a simple sparing match, but would wait till things got out of hand to do anything about it.

The other two were a pair of girls that Julia was going to train. They were both students of the Master Leep. Ranma didn't know a thing about the pair. He recalled Shelia telling him that Carla was known to be quite a party girl and that Luan could be quite normal.

It was an odd group, but things were looking up now that Gina was in the field again. Ranma looked around the area and spotted the cave entrance. "Are we heading right in?"

Gina shook her head. "We'll get to that in a few minutes. First I want to set up our backup plan."

"That thing that Brianna sent along?" Ranma asked.

At this Gina nodded. She moved to the back of the car and opened the trunk. She pulled out a black and silver case. Sitting it on the ground she opened it and four gold spheres the size of grape fruit rose into the air. They shifted around a little, but it was hard to say where the front and back began and ended.

"What are those?" Ranma asked.

"Brianna called them cam-bots and they're supposed to have several functions. They are intelligent just like her normal Peebos, but these have a specially designed use. They record everything around them and send that image back to the lab where Brianna is monitoring them."

"So she can see us right now?" Ranko asked, eying the spheres.

"Yep." Gina said, then started issuing orders. "You and you, go and explore the island and record everything you can."

Two of the sphere's quickly flew off into the trees and vanished. Ranma watched them for a few seconds, then tensed and turned to look up the hill, towards the cave. "Gina, I don't think we're the only people here."

The blond explorer gave him a look. "The car's computer didn't pick up any life forms when we were coming in."

"Then they arrived after we did." Ranma suggested. "I'm sensing two life forms down near the cave entrance, but I can't get any clearer than that. It's like they're trying to hide on purpose."

Ranko bounced up and down a couple of times. "I can go and check it out…"

"Not yet." Gina said. "One of my contacts in the Explorers Society said that a couple of groups might look at this site eventually. It would be against the rules, but they would still do it for a big pay off."

"Ranko, are you sensing anything?" Ranma asked.

The android looked towards the cave they were going to enter and narrowed her eyes. "My sensors are telling me that something living is up there, but what I'm reading doesn't make any sense." She sounded confused.

"What do you mean?" Gina prompted her to continue.

"Well…I'm sensing tree pulp mixed with bleach and a few other things. What's strange is that that it's what's giving off the life sign readings. I have no idea what could be causing such an effect."

Gina looked up at the cave entrance. She was using a finger to tap her lip as she considered the information. "Wood pulp is the raw form of paper."

"Paper?" Ranma asked, looking confused.

The blond just nodded, knowing that explaining it would just confuse her sister. "Yeah, but why would you even be sensing it, Ranko?"

"I can tell that it's up there, and that it's alive in some way, but not what it is or how it got there." Ranko said and had an urge to put on a pair of glasses. She shook her head.

"Well let's check it out." Ranma said as she did a few stretches. "This sounds easy enough to me."

Gina palmed her face and sighed. "Yeah, jinx us why don't you?"

"Huh?" The Android asked, looking surprised.

Ranma, who hadn't taken his eyes off the cave frowned. "I see movement up there. A shadow is moving back and forth just inside the entrance. Maybe they can't get past that door?"

"It's quite possible. That language isn't hard to figure out, but it would take someone else a couple hours at least and that's if they know what they are doing." Gina said with a little nod as she tapped a spot on her glasses and looked up at the cave. "Heat readings are picking up one humanoid person and an entire wall of something."

"Could that be the wood pulp?" Ranko asked. She didn't want to mention it to anyone but this island was just a little scary. Looking around a little, she gulped and moved a little closer to Ranma.

"We'll deal with it when we get up there." Gina decided as she turned to the four remaining spheres. "You two are to guard our equipment as best you can till we return or call for anything." Two of the spheres bobbed up and down and flew over to take position over the car.

"I'm going to use my glasses to help document the inside the this island. I've had my suspicions about this place for some time now. I just want to find out if what I'm thinking is true."

"And what might that be?"

Gina shrugged. "I'm not going to say right now."

"Whatever."

"Ranma, Ranko, are you two ready to go?"

Ranko nodded, bouncing around on her toes in excitement. Ranma just shrugged and wondered why Ranko was acting so oddly. "Let's get to work."

Gina pulled her Light gate remote out and tapped a button. With a bright burst of light a large box appeared beside the car. She walked over and started to pull a number of items out of the box. The three that stood out were the collapsible scooters.

Kneeling next to one of the scooters, Ranma examined it. He wasn't looking forward to riding the things. He couldn't ever remember a time in his life where he had ridden anything like them. Ranma didn't know how to drive and depended on his physical abilities to get around. Last time he had ridden the hover board with ease and could even roof hop when he needed to.

"Interesting." Was all Ranko said as she tapped the tank of the scooter.

The genius grinned. "Well the last time I was here all I had were those old hover boards. They worked fine but were a little hard to control. I figured this time, I would make sure we had a better way to move around the place. It's got never ending hallways and passages."

"And we have to explore the whole thing?" Ranko asked. "I still don't recall any of this."

"Ah, well your original memory was fried when Ranma blasted you during that first attack. I had to rebuild your memory core." Gina explained.

"I'd forgotten about that." Ranko admitted, blushing a little.

Gina gave her an odd look, but shrugged it off as she turned back to the box. "Do you want to carry the scooters down? Or shall I wait till we get down there and use the light gate again?"

Ranma glanced at Gina. "Um, Gina, I don't know how to ride one of these things."

The blond turned to look at him. "That's okay, they're easy to ride. You'll pick it up quickly enough. Especially with those long passage ways we have to use. Give it an hour and you'll have it mastered.

He shrugged. "Sounds good to me. Ranko?"

"I haven't ridden one before either, but they look easy enough." She said, eying the machines. "I'd rather run."

"Brit might have said that, but she can run beyond the speed of sound with her werecheetah abilities. Even you can't move that fast on foot." Gina said as she handed both of them a small harness. So the scooters could be carried on their backs.

Gina frowned. "I really should have just waited till we were down below before pulling these out. Ah well, I'll remember that next time."

Minutes later they lugged the packs to their backs and started making for the hole that led down into the passageways. Gina had a device out that she was using to scan the area. Behind them a small pink and blue Peebo crawled out from under the car.

It quickly followed after them, moving silently. Gina had the group use some of the trees for cover as they approached the open door. All of the displaced dirt was still in place from last time. Ranma eyed the darkened entrance warily. The door had shut on them the last they were here and they come out this way.

"Someone is here." Gina said. "They must have made their way to the elevator already."

"Do you think they are already inside?" Ranko asked.

"Yeah, whoever they are. Let's go."

"What are we going to do when we find them?" Ranma asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but right now we just need to get inside and start looking around. The Explorers Society will back up my claim if they try to take anything."

Ranma shrugged. "Let's go then."

The three of them trekked over to the door and glanced inside. Ranko's eyes narrowed as the glanced at the short hallway. "Something isn't right."

Gina glanced at her.

"The roof is alive with energy." Ranko said as she pointed to a small section in the shadows. "All the way over to the elevator."

Examining her scanner, Gina confirmed that Ranko was detecting something odd. "What about you Ranma?"

His eyes scanned the passage way for several seconds. "I think there's a false ceiling. Notice how it's rumpled in the corners?"

Ranma held his hand out and fired a quick Ki blast into the ceiling. It rippled and burst into flames. The fire raced down the hallway as the paper like ceiling quickly vanished. Seconds later, black smoke filled the hallway and slowly wafted out the open door.

Moving into the passage, Ranma continued to scan the area with his senses. Once the smoke vanished, he made his way over to the elevator panel. The front was removed and several wires were hanging down, connected to a little computer board.

"Jinkies." Gina said as she examined the entrance door. "This was forced open. The metal is all scratched up and warped. What a waste."

"How about this?" Ranma asked.

Gina examined the computer board. "Someone bypassed the electronics of the elevator to make it run. These may not be explorers, but thieves."

"Then we need to remove them." Ranma said. "Let's go find them."

"We need to be careful Ranma, we don't know what they are capable of yet."

"Alright." He conceded.

Ranko was frowning as she looked at the damaged parts. She reached out and tapped one of the symbols on the main plate. This made Gina glance at her for a second, but then the elevator started to hum with energy. "The elevator should work again."

"How did you do that?"

Ranko shrugged. "It just seemed like the logical thing to do."

"Excellent, now we can get inside and look around."

With a whooshing sound, the doors opened. Gina nodded to herself and stepped inside. The other two followed her and minutes later the elevator descended. Ranma sniffed the air and frowned. "Can you smell that?"

"What?"

"Some kind of perfume."

Gina sniffed the air. "I rarely wear the stuff so I don't recognize it."

"Some kind of jasmine?" Ranma muttered under his breath.

Suddenly the doors to the elevator opened. Gina quickly stepped out into the nearly pitch black area. She didn't recognize the area at all. "This isn't where we were last time."

Ranma nodded. "This is different. There aren't any lights like last time. This area is nearly pitch black."

"That way, I think." Ranko sounded confused.

"What makes you say that?" Gina asked as she eyed the emptiness around them.

"I'm not sure, but I think there's a door over in that direction. I also think this would be a good time to use the scooters. From here on there is a lot of distance to cover."

Gina's eyes narrowed as she considered something. Eventually she just shrugged her pack off and sat the scooter on the floor. Ranma watched as she tapped a button on the side and the thing quickly unfolded itself. Seconds later the box with wheels was a small, light weight scooter.

It sure wasn't very impressive looking, but Ranma figured that was because Penny had designed and built them instead of Gina. The other two scooters soon unfolded themselves. Gina looked them over with a little frown on her face and sighed. "Penny always did sacrifice style for basic use."

Ranma shrugged. "How does this thing work?"

About fifteen minutes later Ranma was puttering around them in a circle, the scooter wobbling like crazy. "Speed up a little, the faster it goes, the easier it is to ride." Gina explained.

Ranko didn't seem to have any problems as she and Gina started move through the darkened area. It took a bit of doing, but Ranma quickly figured out how the thing worked and caught up with them. About five minutes later their headlights lit up the far wall and they spotted a doorway.

It just amazed Ranma how big the inside of this island could be. They all stopped and got off the scooters as Gina pulled out her scanning device again. Her glasses gleamed a little as she studied the device. "I'm not entirely positive, but I think we're on the lowest level. Some kind of storage room for large equipment. Ranko, we need to find any treasure vaults or anything like that."

The Android tilted it's head to the side. "I'm not sure there are any."

"You've been guiding us a little since we arrived. I thought you might have some idea where the vaults would be."

"No really." Ranko shrugged. "All I'm detecting is more of that living paper energy."

"You're still sensing that?"

"Yes, but it's beside the door there." Ranko said as she pointed at the wall.

Ranma moved over to the door and spotted a little white piece of paper stuck to the wall beside it. Seconds later Gina was examining the paper with her scanner and she nodded. "I thought so."

"You recognize it?"

"Yeah, but I've never met the person that uses this stuff. She's listed on the Japanese roster of Metahumans."

"A girl?" Ranma asked. "What exactly does she do?"

"She can make paper do anything she wants it too. She seems to have some kind of Psychic connection to paper."

"What's her name?"

"I don't remember. I'm actually surprised I remember this much about a person I read about some years ago."

Ranma just nodded.

Gina tapped a plate next to the door and it slid open. They entered the hallway on the other side. This was as dark as the other room, but Ranko touched a nearby panel and the area lit up. Looked up as the light flickered on. "These are running on emergency power."

"They aren't as bright as before." Gina observed. "Will these follow us like last time?"

"I assume so." Ranko said. Her voice sounded distant.

"Well let's start looking around, I want to really explore this place and we have enough supplies now."

"What about that security system?"

"No problem there, I figured out a way to bypass that. The computer systems here aren't reading us as enemies anymore." Gina explained.

"Check it out, more paper." Ranma said as he spotted slips of paper on the wall every fifty feet or so.

"A trail, so they can find their way back."

"Want me to remove them?"

"Leave them for now." Gina said as she scanned a couple of them.

"Now what?" Ranma asked.

After mounting the scooters, they spent over an hour racing down the hallway. As before it was nearly endless, but every fifty feet there was a small slip of paper attached to the wall. Then they rounded yet another wide turn and had to skid to a stop. Ranma nearly wrecked, but managed to keep control by dragging his feet on the floor.

There in front of them was a large door. Gina jumped off her scooter and started to examine the door. Scanning as much of it as she could with her hand held computer. "You aren't going to believe this, this whole door is made out of paper!"

"Isn't the door part of this place?"

"No, it's just been made that way." Gina said excitedly.

"Want me to blast it like did that one at the entrance?" Ranma asked.

"No, the fire and smoke would fill up the hallway and make it hard to breath."

Ranma, who was already about to blast it, quickly lowered his hands. "Then what?"

"Try to tear it down with your hands."

Reaching out, Ranma touched the door with his hands. It even felt like cold metal. He gave a Ki enhanced shove, but the door didn't move and inch. He scanned it with his senses. "I think it's anchored to the walls somehow."

Gina scanned the door for several minutes before nodding. "Yep there are almost a dozen anchor points. I think its only about a half inch thick though."

"It also means that they are aware that we are following them." Ranma pointed out. "Up till now I wasn't sure because of those trail markers."

Gina nodded. "We'll just have to be careful and see if they're hostile or not. Perhaps I should have brought Cheetah with us."

"I can handle anyone we come across." Ranma said.

He moved over to the door and his aura lit up for a brief second. His foot slammed into the wall of paper. The impact sent a shiver through the stuff, and then with a loud groan the whole thing fell to pieces. Filling the whole area with loose sheets of paper as it collapsed.

Gina, hiding behind her scooter, peaked over the side and nodded. "That should do it. Thanks Ranma."

"No problem." Ranma smirked.

Then Ranko walked over and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, that was great." She whispered in his ear.

Ranma froze.

"No time for that Ranko, we need to keep going." Gina said with a huff. Though there was also a calculating gleam in her eye as she watched the two.

"Sure." Ranko said, smiling brightly as she let her fingers trail across Ranma's shoulders. Then the two girls hopped on their scooters and raced off. Ranko's giggling trailed off into the distance.

It took Ranma several seconds to recover before he raced off after them. He grumbled under his breath about never understanding girls. One minute they were cold as ice and next they wanted something from him. It was aggravating him to no end. It only took a few minutes for him to spot the girls in the distance and catch up.

"Hey, Gina, is that a door?" Ranma called out and pointed down the hallway.

There in the distance was indeed a door and right next to it was a little slip of paper attached to the wall. They all came to a stop and dismounted the scooters. Gina took a second to record the location in the small map the computer was building. "The computer says we've risen about ten feet from when we entered this hallway."

"We're getting higher?" Ranma asked. "The floor must be slopped, but not enough to really notice."

"So that large area won't be on the other side of that door?" Ranko asked.

"No, I think this might be what I've been looking for since we arrived." Gina explained. "A way to learn more about this place."

An odd look crossed Ranko's face for a second, but the only one to notice was Ranma. Then Ranko strutted back to her scooter, dug something out of a bag, and came back with a rather large hand gun strapped to her leg. "Girl's gotta have some protection." She said with a Brianna like grin.

"You alright Ranko?" Gina asked.

"Perfectly fine, lets find some targets. My finger is getting itchy."

Ranma backed off a couple of steps.

Gina continued to watch Ranko for several seconds, then she shrugged, and opened the door. Several things jumped to her attention at once. The first was that the room was some kind of computer bay of some kind, with terminals running all the walls for nearly fifty feet. Then she noticed a pair of girl's examining the terminals.

It was hard to determine the ages of the girls, but Gina noticed a red haired woman with a sword on her back, wearing a simple kimono. The other one seemed to be in her early twenties, with black hair, glasses, and a book in her hand. Next to her was a little pull suitcase. Inside the open case Gina could see a pile of paper.

"Come in Gina Diggers." The younger one said and smiled at them.

Gina thought she looked slightly flushed, but dismissed it. Getting to this point on foot must have tired both the girls out in some way. "You know who I am?"

"I just got done talking to a friend of mine. He recognized you." She said. "I'm Yomiko and this is Nodoka."

"I've got a permit to explore this place." Gina said, pulling out a slip of paper.

"We know, but that isn't why we're here."

Ranma and Ranko stepped into the room and took up their places beside Gina as the two talked. He quickly noted that the red headed woman, in her late thirties at least, altered the way she was standing as they came through the door. She seemed to be Yomiko's body guard or partner. Ranma easily recognized the kendo stance the woman was using.

He studied her for a second with his magic and noticed that she seemed to have an normal aura, so she wasn't powered in anyway. The bundle on her back seemed to be a different story. It actually had an aura of black and silver fire swirling around. Ranma could even detect a link between the woman and the sword, a strong one.

The younger girl has a blazing aura that seemed to fill her eyes. Everything about her seemed to blaze with living energy, her hair, glasses, dress, and even the coat. He stared at the girl for several seconds, stunned by the aura swirling around her. She didn't appear to notice, but Ranma saw her blush a little as the older woman leaned over and said something to her.

"Then why are you here Yomiko?" Gina asked.

"To find any lost books that may be around and bring them back." Yomiko breathed, looking awed.

Ranma was positive she was blushing this time and she wasn't even looking at anyone. He also noticed that the red headed woman beside her seemed to roll her eyes a little. "Your initial report the explorers society make it's way along the usual channels and were sent to find any missing or lost scraps of knowledge." Nodoka explained.

"As far as I'm aware, this while island is abandoned and only has a few functional computers. I've never seen anything even resembling a book or scroll." Gina said.

"We are also supposed to get copies of the computer banks." Nodoka said, holding up a small disc. "Once that's done…"

"No!" Gina yelled. "I discovered this island and what's in it, the rules say that I have first dibs on everything. I won't allow you to just run around take anything you want."

"We're just here for copies of the banks, Miss Diggers."

"No, and a gain NO." Gina growled. "There are dangerous things in the bank of this place and I won't let that information fall into the hands of people that will abuse that knowledge. It's bad enough groups like Peewee and his moron brigade run around stealing everyone's DNA to play with. Now people are developing tech that's to dangerous for them to handle. I'll give over what information won't cause needless suffering!"

"We can't allow that." A flinty eyed Nodoka snapped.

"I can." Gina snapped back. "I'm here to explore this whole island and document everything and I can't do that when someone else is stealing information from the computers!"

"Now, now Nodoka, there's no reason to pick a fight. We'll get the information and just leave." Yomiko suggested.

"After I document everything, then I'll give you limited access to the computers." Gina said.

"No deal, we'll make copies of everything." Nodoka growled and reached up to grab a string around the bundle on her back. The covering came off to reveal the hilt of a large katana. "Even if we have to take you out to get it."

"Nodoka, calm down. We can get it later…"

"No, they are insulting our organization and won't ever give us what we came here for."

"I can get Joker to take care of it, this mission isn't about fighting." Yomiko insisted.

"Too bad, they've insulted me as well." Nodoka snapped.

Ranma studied her as she ranted and realized that the blade on her back was influencing her decisions. He wasn't sure just how, but the sword was giving off an intimidating aura. Yomiko seemed to want to wait, but Nodoka wouldn't listen. "Gina, the sword is magical in some way. It's affecting her mind."

"Are you sure?" Gina asked, looking worried.

"She won't get far." Ranko said, pulling her weapon out.

"Just give us the information and we'll leave." Yomiko said, trying to restrain Nodoka.

"No, that information is mine. I won't let you have it." Gina said.

"See, just like I told you." Nodoka spoke up.

Yomiko sighed and stepped back. "We don't have to fight."

"I disagree." The red haired woman said, pulling her sword from its sheath. The blade hummed as she brought it around and took up an attack stance.

Ranma and Ranko both prepared to fight while Gina gulped and backed off. Silver fire sprang up around Nodoka's blade, a tiny bit dropping to the floor, and sizzling. Ranma wasn't sure what he was dealing with now. His senses were going crazy as he studied the blade. He could tell from the look in Nodoka's eyes that she was confident she would win any fight with the blade.

He brought his hands up and formed a small fireball. "Back off, or else." He bluffed. She was rude, but he still didn't want to hurt the woman.

Nodoka sneered a little, completely confident in winning any battle. "A fire ball isn't going to win this fight boy."

"Um, Ranma, could you not destroy this room. We do need the computers here."

"I won't, but I doubt she will cooperate in any way." Ranma indicated Nodoka. "That blade is fueling her blood lust."

"I control this blade boy, not the other way around."

"You might believe that, but I can see differently." Ranma said, his eyes glowing slightly. This only seemed to make the woman smirk a little more though.

"I always like playing with magic users. Their screams of shock as they are defeated by my blade always make me smile."

"Ranko, keep glasses here from interfering." Ranma said, focusing on what he considered the major threat. He knew that Yomiko held quite a bit of power, but this sword was proving to be even more dangerous.

"No problem." Ranko said and pointed her gun at the girl.

"Hey, put that thing away." She said, pulling several sheets of paper from her coat. "I don't want to fight, but I will if you force me…"

Nodoka growled and jumped forward. She slashed at Ranma, who just jumped back and slapped the blade away. With a bright spark of silver fire, Ranma cried out in pain. His whole hand was bright red, as if he just burned it. Nodoka laughed and spun the blade around a few times. "A magic user can never touch this sword."

"You aren't a very skilled weapon user are you?" Ranma asked, shaking his hand. It was slightly numb. "Pops was a better weapon user than you and he hates blades."

Jumping forward, Nodoka attacked in earnest. Filling the air with bits of silver fire as she tried to take Ranma down permanently. "Give up!"

Ranma smirked as his body blurred, leaving Nodoka to slash up his after images. Seconds later Ranma bounced off her head, flipped over her, and landed behind her. He easily avoided her back thrust and tapped the side of her head.

Since he was focused on the swords movements, he didn't see the odd gleam that appeared in her eye as they fought. Though he did noticed the odd smile she started to sport seconds later as she launched into another attack. This one was a little different than the first one. Then the blade suddenly slashed the side of his leg and Ranma cried out in agony.

"What the hell!"

"A magic user and a martial artist." Nodoka said, grinning widely. "Of the Saotome school?"

Ranma's head widened in shock as he gazed at the woman. "I'm Ranma Saotome, of the Saotome school of Martial Arts and how do you know of it?"

Nodoka just grinned. "I'll tell you some other time. Now show me what you can really do and stop holding back."

Growling, Ranma rushed forward, met and deflected the sword off his bracer with a shower of silver fire. At the same time she used her leg to grasp his punching arm and throw him off balance, tossing him to the side. He had to twist to keep from being sliced by the sword. She laughed as he came back to his feet and Ranma brought his hands up and fired a fire ball at her.

He started to worry the instant he saw her bring the sword around and slice through the fire ball and the whole thing exploded into silver fire. Seconds later Nodoka stood there panting for air, her hair slightly mussed as the silver fire swirled around her. "Gotta do better than that!"

She brought sword around and sent a wave of silver fire at him. Ranma gasped and dove for cover and let the wave of fire fly by and realized that the sword absorbed magic and turned the energy into a weapon. He frowned as she slowly came to his feet and recalled something that Dr. Diggers had told him.

Magic is a tool and must be used wisely, or it's a useless tool. Across the room Ranko, still acting like Brianna, brought her gun to bare and fire. Yomiko whipped the paper around and blocked the High velocity bullet. The sheet of paper just rippled a little and the spent slug fell and bounced off her foot.

"That wasn't very nice." Yomiko said, her glasses gleaming.

"Your friend is trying to injure my brother."

"He won't be hurt too badly. Just give us the information and we'll leave."

"Not my decision." Ranko said. She fired off several more shots, aiming for non lethal areas, but Yomiko just blocked them all by creating a shield of overlapping paper. Even as Ranko stopped firing the shield was falling apart.

With a quick step, Yomiko was in front of her and lashed out with a stream of paper that sliced the gun into pieces. Ranko could only gape as the pieces fell to the floor and joined the bullets. She re-evaluated the threat level the girl presented. Grinning she dropped the useless grip to the floor and pretended to crack her knuckles.

"Then let's play this a different way." Ranko threatened.

Yomiko just pulled out a deck of cards. "I guess we'll have to play."

Suddenly Ranma backed into Ranko, just as Yomiko sent the paper cards flying out in a long chain. They whipped around, slammed into the floor, and cut through the metal in the blink of an eye. Ranma and Ranko yelled out as they suddenly fell through the floor. They tried to jump for the edge of the opening, but just missed it.

The fall was only about twenty feet and they landed with ease and looked up at the hole to see Yomiko and Nodoka look down at them. They waved and moved away from the hole. Yomiko looked at Gina and smiled a little. "That wasn't so hard."

"I expected better from him." Nodoka said, disappointed in Ranma's performance. Though she did admit that he seemed to have lasted longer than some of her other fights. For a moment she thought of Genma, then put it out of her mind. She turned back to Gina. "Now, that information."

"Indeed, the spoils of war." Yomiko said. She picked her book up from where she dropped it earlier and dusted it off. "There, there, I'll have cleaned up in a moment."

Gina was about to respond when the floor started to shake. Nodoka and Yomiko glanced around nervously. Then the hole in the floor flared with light just as Ranma and Ranko levitated back into the room looking angry. Ranma flicked his wrist just a little and the two of them landed at the edge of the hole. The sword in Nodoka's hand started to flicker back to life, dripping silver fire on the floor.

"Don't you two know when to give up?" Nodoka snapped. Her voice sounded angry, but her eyes showed something else.

Ranma didn't say anything as he brought his hands forward and fire three quick Ki blasts at Nodoka. Instead of hitting her two of them made a quick turn in mid air and slammed into the floor on either side of her. The third one went right for her chest and she brought her sword around as she tried to keep her feet among the blasts.

The third Ki blast seemed to fade out even as the sword would have hit and she stumbled back. Ranma was there in a second, pressing his finger into several spots on her chest and neck. The red haired woman sighed as she collapsed to the floor asleep and dropped the sword. Ranma then turned to Ranko. "Ranko, please shove the sword into the floor blade first."

The android nodded, quickly picking up the sword and ramming it into the floor until only about an inch of the blade was still showing. "How's that?"

"Perfect." Ranma said as he checked Nodoka's vitals. "Now, let's take care of the other one."

Yomiko couldn't believe Nodoka had been taken down so fast. "How?"

"I was holding back against her because she was using that sword. I didn't want to hurt her that badly." Ranma said as he stalked towards the girl.

"But…"

"Now I believe its time for you to leave." Ranma said, glaring at the girl. "Gina, are you alright?"

"Yeah, they didn't hurt me."

"Good."

Yomiko glanced at the three of them and tried to think of way to continue her mission. It was a well known fact, now that The Agency knew that Ranko was an android, that this place held the information needed to build fully functional robots.

Her boss, Joker, told her to get the information at all costs. With it they could use the knowledge to create disposable soldiers. There were only a few people around that could build robots like Gina Diggers did. Very few of them would ever give up that knowledge.

She needed that information. Though she was disappointed that it didn't come in a nice, easy to read, book format.

The three of them were looking at her now, so Yomiko stood up, adjusted her clothes, and glanced down at the floor where her cards were scattered around.

They moved around and quickly formed underneath Nodoka's unconscious body and lifted her off the floor. "I'll be going then."

"Don't come back." Ranko said from behind Ranma.

"Alright." Yomiko meekly said as she turned and headed back for the door. As she took a step, paper from her suitcase started to fly out. She raised her arm and waved it at the three of them. The room filled with pieces of paper flying about like snow in a blizzard.

Ranma rushed forward, only to be pushed back by a large wall of paper. At the same time Ranko pressed against it, but the wall still pushed her back, even scraping her shoes across the floor. After nearly a minute of straining against the wall, it shuddered to a stop just a few feet from the terminals.

No matter how much he strained and flexed his muscles, the wall wouldn't budge. Then the wall slowly started to fall apart from the edges in, scattering paper across the room, even down the hole in the floor. Ranma and Ranko fell to the floor when the wall gave out.

Glancing around, they came to their feet and ran over to the door. There was no sign of Yomiko or Nodoka as they looked down the hall. They heard several curse words and turned to see Gina stuck between a couple of terminals, squashed between them with only an arm and leg wiggling around.

"Help!"

Gaping for a second, Ranma had to keep from laughing for several seconds before he went over and helped Gina out. She glared at him for several seconds before stomping over to her scooter and got her scanner. She spent a few minutes adjusting it, occasionally glaring at Ranma, then going back to the scanner.

As she moved across the room Ranma couldn't help but notice the way Gina's hips rocked up and down as she moved. It just drew his eye like a magnet. In some ways he was reminded of what happened between him and Brianna in the VR room. He was sensing the same kind of feelings from Gina as he did Brianna when she was frustrated with him.

Ranko, noticing where Ranma was looking, gave Gina a withering look. She didn't do anything about it since she was planning something herself. There were several ideas racing around her mind at that moment and all of them included a night of passion and waking up in Ranma's arms the following morning. She spaced out for several minutes fantasizing about Ranma.

Meanwhile, Ranma hadn't really noticed Ranko, he just sat back and watched as Gina moved around the room in her skimpy outfit that stretched over her curves and left nothing to the imagination.

Then Gina stopped, and turned around to look towards Ranma as if she had sensed him looking. Grinning, she ran back over to her scooter and started tossing supplies around until she pulled out a small white box. She held it in the air for several seconds.

"Ranma!" She yelled, stuffing something from the box in her pocket before he could see it. "Get over here."

"Wha?"

Gina pointed at his slightly bleeding leg. "Let me clean that up. I'm a fully trained doctor after all."

Ranma glanced at his wound and shrugged. "It's not that bad."

"It could get infected in this environment." She explained as she reached for his leg.

Seconds later Gina ripped the leg of his pants right up the side to reveal the small cut. She cooed at him and started to clean up the wound. Her fingers seemed to go everywhere though and Ranma wondered why she was feeling his butt and blushing.

Ranma looked confused. "Hey, Brianna did something like that…"

"Gina!" Ranko yelled.

"I'm cleaning his wound."

"You're feeling him up!"

Gina huffed, but pulled her hand out of his boxers much to Ranma's relief. Now she was really starting to remind him of Brianna. She was getting a little too friendly. Then she tapped a bandage over the wound and gave it a good field dressing. "We can fix that up once we get home. I think I can get the rejuvenator working again."

Ranma checked the bandage. "Good job, I should be able to heal that in just a couple of days."

Gina beamed at him. Of course she was kneeling on the floor right in front of him, gazing up at him with wide innocent eyes, but Gina could be as bad as Brianna at times. "I'll change the bandage here in about four hours." She said in a husky voice.

"Huh?"

"We can't let it get infected can we? No, so I'll change the bandage for you." Her eyes were glittering.

"Uh, right."

She stood up and hugged his head to her chest. "You were so brave!"

"Ack!"

"Gina!" Ranko yelled. "Don't make me get that 'Gina' prod Britanny used to carry around.

Gina could only gape at Ranko and back away from Ranma by several steps.

oooooooooo

Theodore Diggers was floating at the center of a pentagram. The lines of the pentagram glowed brightly, sending light rising into the air around Theo's body. Highlighting his black mage suit. His aura flowed around him like a miniature hurricane, his hands held before him as he chanted.

Magic swirled around the room. Off to the side Julia Diggers and Sheila were keeping guard to make sure that Theo wasn't interrupted. If he was it could mean his instant death. He was tapping into the very same energies that his own father had touched so long ago when he became the Lich King.

Two of Johnathon Digger's scrolls floated off to each side of the pentagram. Magic hummed and thrummed throughout the room. Theo yelled out a word and the magic came to a stop and started to build up power. He yelled out a second word and magic rippled form him, nearly vaporizing the back wall, but the pentagram wasn't even touched.

The girl's hair was flying around them as they struggled to stay in place. Sheila shifted to her human form, doubling in size and height. Muscles bulged on her arms as she knelt down and ignored the wind. At the same time Julia stepped beside the girl and used her as a wind break.

Theo yelled out a third word and the low thrumming became a loud buzz that filled the mansion. From there Theo slowly wove his aura magic around him with hand gestures, forming a funnel inside the pentagram.

"How much longer, Mrs. Diggers?" Sheila yelled.

"About five minutes, he's not even at the halfway point." Julia yelled back.

Sheila stared into the maelstrom of magic and spotted the small living puzzle piece that was Raphiel. "Why aren't we doing the same thing as last time?"

"Because Array isn't available this time." Julia explained. "She's been imprisoned here on earth."

"What about Gina doing something with her technology?" Sheila suggested and cringed a little.

"Gina's house just blew up, she couldn't help right now."

Sheila nodded as she saw Theo wave his other hand and the puzzle piece rose up into the air and developed it's own aura. Then Theo's eyes blazed to life and his mage suit rose up and covered him from head to toe. Giving him the appearance of a humanoid shadow.

The puzzle piece started to expand, changing shape as the seconds went by. Theo held forth a small beaker full of blood and poured it on the piece. Instead of dripping to the floor, the blood was absorbed. The small aura expanded even more and a small humanoid shape appeared.

Yelling a fourth word, all the magic in the room converged on the growing shape and appeared to enter it. Julia suddenly sensed something and whipped her sword out just as something appeared in the corner of the room. It stepped forward to reveal a rather sexy female vampire.

"Queen Natasha." Julia said, recognizing voluptuous black haired beauty before her.

The nearly naked vampire stared at the scene before her with glee. "Dabbling in Necromancy, Dr. Diggers? You bad, bad, boy."

"Stay out of this Natasha." Julia said, stepping between them.

"I'm the Queen of the Undead, Julia, this falls under the sway of my job." Natasha explained. "Especially since dear old Grandpa is my servant. It seems the son didn't fall as far from the tree as dear old grandpa Diggers." She said with a fanged grin and licked her pure white teeth.

"Raphiel was never part of your domain Natasha. He's…"

"He was granted true life when Array gave him life. Once your husband succeeds Raphiel will be mine to play with. Once he lost what Array gave him, he died. Just because his soul piece still has some life doesn't mean squat."

"You can't have him!" Sheila yelled. "Raphiel is my friend and he isn't going anywhere!"

"Be quiet little girl. Let your betters talk while you stand around and BE Quiet!" Natasha snarled.

Sheila stumbled back a couple of steps and suddenly changed into her smaller werejaguar form. She found that she couldn't say anything even when she tried, no sound would come from her mouth. Growling, she flicked her wrist and Ice Fang appeared in her hand.

Queen Natasha just threw her head back and laughed, making bits of her jiggle around. "Ooooh, I'm so scared!"

"Natasha, leave before I make you."

The dark haired vampire's head snapped around to glare at Julia. "I'm not that weak willed buffoon you fought a couple years ago. I'm the Queen of the Undead now and I have more power than you in my fingernail. Now get out of my way, the rite is nearly finished."

"No." Julia growled.

Natasha's eyes lit up with power as she hissed at Julia. "So be it then, I wasn't going to hurt any of you. Just take what belongs to me, but if you insist on a fight. Deadians, come!"

"OOOOOh! I love that word!" A perverted voice yelled out and a skeleton slouched out of a nearby shadow, followed by twenty others. They all turned to look at Julia and Sheila. "WhoooEeee, this be the best part of this job. They good looking babes!"

Sheila sighed. "Great, the perverted skeletons."

One of them held up a rather large, though beat up, dildo. "Who's first!"

"Hiya Queeny."

"Do what you want with these two girls, they're yours. Just keep them out of my hair."

"Your rear? It's mighty fine!" One spoke up and suddenly exploded into pieces. Natasha lowered her hand and growled a little.

"Now get to work!"

"YES MA'AM!" They yelled and saluted like deranged Nazis. The beat up dildo was an interesting counter point though, since it was now switched on.

Julia and Sheila shuddered. They could remember when Britanny and Gina encountered these things.

"Bring on the chicks!"

"These old bones need some luvin!"

"Buzzz!"

"Look at the hooters on that one! Yow!"

Sheila sighed. "I see Britanny wasn't exaggerating."

A skeleton turned its nose up at Sheila. "This one has no talent at all."

"It's a crime when pre-teens are exposed to such naughtiness." Another one said, looking around behind her. "No breasts at all, though she does have a nice rear view.

Shiela growled.

"And this other one, she's got a fine, FINE set of knockers, but she's old! I'm insulted!"

"Knockers!"

With a curse, Julia lashed out with her sword and two of the skeletons exploded into powder. The others took this as an excellent chance to attack and swarmed around her. Sheila cried out and sent a wave of ice into the pack of undead perverts, entombing them in walls of ice.

The rest, still commenting on their breasts, weaved and dodged between both women, every now and then they would rip a bit of clothing off. Then things got worse as they started to rise up out of the very shadows on the floor. With the girl's occupied, Natasha sauntered over to Theo and smiled at him.

A very large amount of magic flowed around him, slowly entwining into the mass of flesh between his hands that was rapidly shaping itself into a humanoid form. Natasha knelt down before him, proving that she didn't believe in underwear, and flashed him a smile.

"Soon Diggers."

"Sheila, jump back, now!" Julia yelled as she tossed a skeleton across the room.

Sheila jumped to the side just as blast of energy filled the room. Three seconds later all the Deadians were just gone. She looked around and was surprised to find that all traces of the undead things missing. There wasn't even any dust on the floor.

The armsmaster casually sheathed her sword and glanced over at Natasha, who glared back. "Natasha, I told you to leave. Or else."

"I am Queen Natasha! I will not stand for this kind of insult!" The vampire queen yelled.

"You're asking for such a Kapowie!" Sheila growled back.

With a curse, Natasha sighed dramatically and vanished in a burst of black fire. As soon as she was gone, Julia made her way back over to where Theo was just finishing his spell. The room filled with light seconds later.

As the light died down Sheila saw that a body was on the floor. She moved over and looked down to see a human looking Raphiel. As with most lycanthropes, his human form was quite a bit smaller than his hybrid form. She blushed a little as Julia handed her a blanked to cover his naked body.

Theo was completely exhausted and just sat on the floor gasping for. "I'm not doing that again any time soon."

"You did a great job, honey." Julia told him.

"I'm just glad I could do something to help the boy."

"He's had a rough life. Were you able to do everything you wanted?"

Theo nodded. "That blood sample I obtained from Britanny worked perfectly. Raphiel should be a pure werecheetah now."

"Natasha showed up."

"She's a little hard to miss." Theo smirked.

Julia slapped the top of his head. "I had to kill nearly two dozen of those skeletons."

"Blasted things are just distractions usually. What did she do while she was here?"

"Nothing." Julia said after a few seconds of thought. "She just demanded that we turn Raphiel over to her once you were done. For some reason she believed that Raphiel belonged to her now that that you were resurrecting him."

"She just may have a claim, though I disagree with what she might want him for. She's very used to getting her way. Was Vlad with her?"

"No."

"I'll have to think about it. Raphiel is kind of immortal, so I'm not sure what she would want him for. For now let's not worry about it and get Raphiel to a bed. He'll need to sleep for several hours at least. I don't expect him to wake up till tomorrow sometime."

Theo climbed to his feet and followed the girls as they transported the resurrected werecheetah to the closest bedroom. As soon as the door closed, Natasha reappeared in the center of the room. She wandered over to the cabinets on the far side of the room and glanced inside one filled with scrolls.

She ran her finger down the each one to read the name until she came to one entitled Nemesis Flare. Grinning, she cast a couple of runes on the whole cabinet and pulled the scroll out. Once out, she made a quick copy of it and replaced it.

With another burst of black fire, she vanished from the house completely. Even Dr. Diggers would have been surprised to find out how she got past his security wards, but he wouldn't find out about it for a long time to come. Once she was back in the Undead Realm, she headed for her office and sat down to read the spell that had created her most irritating servant. Johnathon 'Lich King' Diggers, the former ruler of the Undead Realm.

oooooooooo

Beep! Beep! Beeeeep! Beep!

Gina's eyes snapped open and she sat up in her sleeping bag. She crawled out, wearing almost nothing, and walked over to the terminal. Her computer had finally cracked the code and was accessing the computer banks. She tapped a couple of buttons and retrieved a small device from the scooter.

The device was one of her computer designs. It looked like a miniature server tower that sat on the floor. She quickly plugged it in to the back of the scanner. A screen informed her that the new hardware was ready for use and she started downloading the banks.

A little gage popped up on the screen and informed her that it would take three hours to get it all transferred. She sighed at the amount of time required, but figured it would be worth the time. Catching movement out of the corner of her eye, she sauntered back to her sleeping bag, sat down, and stretched.

A few yards away, Ranma moved deeper into his sleeping bag and tried not to look at the nearly naked girl just a few feet away. He was a bit confused and couldn't figure out why he was looking at her like that either.

It didn't help that Ranko, who had her own sleeping bag near Gina, was also doing the same thing Gina was. Although she was taking being nearly naked to completely new levels since her programing still included Ranma's complete lack of modesty.

For a few seconds he considered turning into a girl to get them to stop. A little voice in his mind told him to go and jump in a lake if he even continued to think like that. So he just admired the view of a half naked pervert scientist as she moved around. It didn't help that Ranko, who was topless, was copying Gina.

She was even wearing glasses.

Ranma sighed and wondered where she managed to get them. Then could only goggle as Ranko's top started to jiggle all around. Gina looked up in panic and grabbed her own wobbling chest. It was only then that Ranma noticed that something was wrong.

The whole room was shaking around and the girl's suddenly moved under the cover of the sleeping bags. "It's an earthquake!" Gina yelled. "Holy Moley!"

"Jinkies!" Ranko yelled from her own bag. They both emerged fully clothed in their outfits from the day before, much to Ranma's relief.

He jumped to his feet an instant later in case he was needed to protect the girls. They glanced in his direction and Gina wondered how long he'd been awake and how much he'd seen of her little show. He was so fun to tease.

"Ranma, start gathering up the loose supplies. We need to be out of this room as quickly as we can." Gina said, as the quake, which was like one long continuous shaking, slowly intensified.  
Ranma nodded and started to quickly roll up sleeping bags, collect any loose clothing, and pack away everything on the scooters. At the same time Gina and Ranko ran over to the computer and tried to reduce any damage it might take from the quake.

"I need to leave this hooked up for a few more hours." Gina muttered. "Or all that information will be lost."

"Any idea what's causing the quake?" Ranma asked.

"No. I took readings of the island before we arrived and things seemed stable enough."

"Are we heading back for the surface?"

Gina frowned, which Ranko quickly copied. "Maybe, right now everything is shaking, but there isn't any damage. Perhaps something is taking the brunt of the damage elsewhere on the island."

"Hard to really say, I haven't been in an earthquake since I as wandering around China with the old man and he turned that into a training exercise." Ranma said just as the shaking finally stopped.

This made Gina sigh in relief. "If the island is unstable, we need to complete the exploration as soon as possible."

Ranko nodded. "Indeed, seeing as we are inside a hollow space, we might want to worry about the possibility that it might lose buoyancy."

"Huh?" Ranma asked.

"It might sink." Gina explained.

"Ah, well, let's worry about that if it happens."

The room started shaking again and the girl's yelled as they ran over to Ranma and grabbed his arms in a death grip. Ranma blinked in surprise, but then pulled them a little closer as the shaking increased. The girl's didn't complain and Ranma breathed a sigh of relief.

Gina wasn't all that scared, but she wanted to take advantage of Ranma's innocence while she could. No matter how often she told herself that she was too old for him, she couldn't stop lusting after him. It helped that the only person that thought she was too old for Ranma, was herself. That was why she had to resist the urge to grab his butt as they huddled together.

It was only a little while later that the rumbling stopped and the girl's looked around. Gina also noticed something. "Both quakes lasted exactly ninety two seconds. That is very, odd."

Ranma continued to sweat nervously until the girl's finally let go of his arms. He stepped away from them and shook his hands to get the circulation running again. "Could those girls from yesterday have caused something?"

"Maybe, but they should have left by now." Gina said.

"They obviously want that information and will go to any length to get it. I'd be they're still around."

Gina nodded. "Me too, but I really hoped they just left."

"At least it's not Pee Wee and the Gang." Ranko commented, sending Gina into peals of laughter.

"What?"

Three hours later the quake hadn't returned and Gina was bouncing around the room nervously checking on the computer every few seconds. When it beeped, indicating that it was done, she quickly checked to see that the information was there. "We got it! Now we need to explore the rest of this island. Remember it was once a pirate island."

"Treasure?" Ranko asked.

"Yep, there has to be something around here."

"Let's find it then." Ranma said as he quickly started his scooter and hopped on.

Shrugging, Gina did the same. She glanced over at Ranko and once again tried to figure out what was wrong with the android. Ever since IB possessed Ranko's body, she had been acting out of sorts. Brianna had even noticed some major alterations of her AI coding.

It was something Gina really wanted to figure out. Once she understood what created the new programming and why, she could duplicate it and make her Hurt Bots even more useful. A fully functioning AI design could also bring her a lot of cash.

They rode out of the room and continued for nearly an hour before they reached another door. Ranma couldn't help noticing that those little slips of paper were still pasted to the walls as well. They checked the door and quickly found a small empty room.

"Why would anyone create all this space and then put in small tiny rooms?" Gina asked herself. She wandered back over to her scooter and pulled out her scanner. "Let me check and see if I managed to download a map of this place."

Ranma just nodded.

A few minutes later Gina found something. "It seems we're near another large room. It's about twenty minutes away and leads to something labeled 'SC'." Gina told them. "I can't tell what it means though."

Twenty minutes later the corridor finally opened up into another bay area, although this one was only a fraction of the size of the others. Ranma started to sense something dangerous nearby and glanced around, but all seemed quiet. He looked over at Gina. "Be on guard, something odd is going on around here."

"What do you sense?"

"Danger of some kind." Ranma said as he glanced at the ceiling. Last time he was in a room like this, things came out of the ceiling, and tried to blast him.

"I see, Jinkies, but this is getting interesting." Gina said with a grin. She bounced around a little in excitement. "We must be close to something great."

Ranma raised and eyebrow at her, but she seemed to be in her own world. On the other hand, Ranko adjusted her glasses and smiled at Ranma with a wanton look of desire. This made him edge away from her and think of Sheila, who was stayed back to help Dr. Diggers with a project.

"Gina, there's a door over there." Ranko said suddenly, pointing off to the left of the group.  
The door was identical to the one they entered through. Gina hopped off her scooter and checked her scanner again. As the stood there, the door slowly opened, and a wave of smoke came out. It quickly flowed around them before they could do anything.

Suddenly a female form ran out the door. Ranma only had a quick look at the girl, but recognized her as the girl from the day before, Yomiko. He went to grab her but a weird sound suddenly filled the air and a wall of fluttering paper started to explode from the doorway.

Gina and Ranko had to dive off their scooters to keep from being hit by the paper. The black haired girl didn't make it to far before the wave of paper seemed to rear up high into the air. Ranma could only gape at the scene as the paper formed into a large snake of some kind.

It struck out and grabbed Yomiko in its mouth. Then rose up, tossing the screaming girl high into the air. Ranma reacted before he had time to really think about his actions. He took a couple of steps and launched into the air, bounced off the thing's back and head, and grabbed the girl in mid air.

From there he saw Gina fire a small weapon of some kind, but it had a hell of a blast. Gina fell on her back from the gun's kick back. The paper snake's head seemed to explode in a ball of fire. Ranma landed with the girl wrapped around him clinging for her life.

Her glasses had landed nearby and her hair was in complete disarray. Ranma tried to lay her on the ground, but she wouldn't let go. He looked over at Ranko. "Make sure that thing doesn't try and get back up!"

She nodded and blasted the paper snake with several Ki blasts, sending the rest of it up in flames.

"What's going on?" Gina asked as she came over.

"Shock, I think." Ranma explained.

Kneeling down Gina began to make a quick check and nodded. Ranma moved one of his hands and tapped the back of Yomiko's neck, knocking her out. It also made her whole body relax. Once she was laid out, they made a quick check to see if she had any other injuries.

"She'll be fine. Something just scared the hell out of her."

"Why was that paper snake after her? I though she controlled paper?"

"I'm not sure."

"I don't think we'll have anymore problems with this things." Ranko told them as she finished burning the thing.

Gina wandered over to the door and looked inside to see several large piles of burning paper. "She's been busy."

"Where's that other one? The red haired woman." Ranma asked.

"I don't see her anywhere."

Ranma nodded. "I'm still sensing danger though."

Yomiko groaned suddenly and sat up. "Nodoka!'

Gina rushed over. "What happened to your friend?"

The girl cringed a little, as if remembering something horrible. "Nodoka and I were exploring when we entered that room. At first…e-everything was fine, boring, but then the ceiling just came alive with…cables."

Gina gulped, this sounded familiar.

"…a-after that Nodoka was grabbed and vanished. After that, things started attacking me." Yomiko took a shuddering breath and tried to regain control of herself.

"I was afraid of this." Gina sighed. "It's one of the reasons I asked you and your friend to leave. This place can be dangerous. Ranko, would this place try and create another android?"

"I think it would." Ranko said, though she hesitated a little before answering.

"We need to get to that room then." Gina said.

"We're quite a distance from it." Ranma pointed out. "At least a couple of levels."

"More than likely there's more than one room for creating androids."

"Is Nodoka in danger?" Yomiko asked.

"Yes." Ranma said. "I was duplicated when I was here last time and the android tried to kill me."

"We have to save Nodoka!"

"What about your paper thingies." Ranma asked. "Can they help us?"

"Thingies?"

"Whatever."

"Everything I've created with paper in the last half hour has turned on me." Yomiko said.

Gina nodded at that. "This place adapts to threats and intruders."

It only took a second for Ranma to move over to the door and look into the next room. Although smoke filled the air, it seemed to be lessening slowly. Allowing him to see several smoking piles of still burning paper.

"Amazing." Gina breathed quietly. "We're underground, yet the smoke is being cleaned from the air faster than we can breath it in. It shouldn't be able to go any place at all." She adjusted her glasses and tapped a little button on the frame. "Hmm…"

"What is it?"

"I'm developing a theory, but it's so outrageous that even I'm having a hard time believing it."

"That…weird?"

Gina nodded. "If I'm right, this is the find of the century and I should never have just left like I did last time."

"Well let's go and save that woman first."

"Of course." Gina said, waving him off as she pulled out a second scanner.

oooooooooo

Peebri glided through the small tunnel silently, Peegi and Peecee, one of Brianna's newest Peebos, were following her. Every now and then one of them would stop and examine a part of the tunnel with their sensors. They weren't entirely sure how they got down here, but so far it was a fascinating experience.

During the night they had caught up to the girls as they slept in that room. After checking the computers and taking several mandatory pictures of a sleeping Ranma, as per Brianna's orders, they had left the room and continued on. Brianna's cackling had filled their hearing sensors for several minutes before it stopped.

At the same time as Peebri explored, Peegi was using her sensors to scan the tunnels around her. So far she was developing a theory that this place wasn't what it seemed to be. Endless hallways, massive rooms, and an elevator that could easily hold a hundred people, something was definintely out of place. She just couldn't seem to figure out what it was.

"Peebri, these readings just make no sense!" Peegi growled.

"Yeah, yeah." The grumpy Peebo said.

"Let's find something interesting."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's just explore this heap, there has to be a video game around here somewhere."

"As if Gina would bring such a thing with her." Peegi said.

"This is scary." Peecee whined.

"Then let's play Peecee's games!"

"We've played them almost constantly for the last month!" Peegi yelled.

"So?"

"Brianna asked to keep an eye on Gina, so that's what we're doing."

Peebri snorted. "Oh yeah, like she's anywhere around here."

Peegi harrumphed. "We agreed to explore ahead to look for dangers."

"Oh that, I just suggested that so we could have something to do. This is boring."

"Peebri!"

"Whaaaattt!" Peebri yelled as something grabbed her and lifted her off the floor.

The two other Peebos gasped in shock and looked up to see a cable with a hook holding Peebri retracting into the ceiling even as a dozen more cables dropped down and headed right for the Peebos.

"Evasive!" Peegi yelled and started racing off.

Peecee turned and made it about half an inch before he was captured and pulled into the ceiling. He yelled about not yet having an escape program programmed into his hard drive. Peegi managed to dodge and weave her way across the small area, deftly avoiding the cables.

On the other hand, her world went decidedly worse when she ran head first into a pair of legs. She bounced off and skidded across the floor. She yelled for help as she ended upside down next to the wall. A hand came down and picked her up and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank…" Was as far as she got.

She had assumed that it might be Gina or one of the girls. Instead it was an older red haired woman dressed in a form fitting body suit. The woman's head tilted to the side. "Query, you are…inorganic?"

"I'm a robotic explorer out to find as much information as I can." Peegi explained in a slightly nervous voice. There is no need to tell the large woman that she could also explode with ten times the power of a land mine.

"Interesting." The flat voice said. "Where are the other…organics?"

"Behind us somewhere, we passed them hours ago."

The woman's face was blank. "What…is an hours?"

Peegi sweat dropped. "That could take a little while to explain."

"I am immortal, so I have plenty of time."

"Cool!" Peegi said with wide eyes. "You wouldn't happen to know if there are some video games around this place, would you?"

"What is a video game?"

"I thought as much." Peegi muttered.

"Input complete, samples have been assimilated and information sampled. You are a Peebo, an imperfect creation of an organic mind. Status of subject:

Useless." The woman said.

"What!" Peegi yelled. "I'll have you know that I've got over a terabyte of memory!"

A cable started to come down from the ceiling and the little Peebo looked up at it in despair. Was this to be her last seconds on earth? The was so much more to learn and experience!

Suddenly the ceiling in the corner exploded with a yellowish green burst of energy and Peebri, slightly battered, fell to the floor and landed on her wheels after a couple of bounces. "I'll teach you to stick things where they don't belong!"

Peegi gaped as Peebri's mini cannon took aim at the woman and fired in a split second. Peebri didn't seem to grasp that Peegi was still in her hands though. "Peebri you dummmmyyy!"

The blast hit the woman in the chest with the force strong enough to blow a full sized dragon out of the air. Still holding Peegi, the woman flew across the room and slammed into the wall hard enough to dent it.

"Bad Android! Bad!" Peebri yelled as the cannon took aim once more and fired.

Peegi had a split second to come to her senses. That was why she was nearly enveloped in the explosive force of the attack. She slid across the room and slammed into the wall. Where she fell over on her side with little swirly eyes. Peebri's laughing continued for several minutes as she blasted the woman again and again.

Until little pieces of her started to rain down around the room. Gears, bits of plastic, limbs, and eventually her head rolled out and looked like something out of the terminator. Peebri just laughed like a maniac and rolled around in circles.

A tile fell out of the ceiling, and Peecee crashed to the floor with several wires still plugged into his CPU. "Halllp!"

"Peecee, can't you do anything!" Peebri yelled as she fired several more shots for the hell of it.

"I'm not programmed for this kind of thing."

Peebri snorted as she finally came to a stop. "Now what?"

Peegi peaked out from behind a bit of fallen wall. "Let's just go and find Gina."

"No way, she'll ruin all our fun."

"This ISN'T fun!"

"Sure it is, beats playing games around the house and getting in trouble.

After all, we are exploring someplace new."

For a second, Peegi seemed to look excited, then shook herself. "We are going to get in so much twaaable!"

Peebri snorted again and waved on of her rabbit ear to dismiss the idea.

"Brianna said…"

"We're supposed to keep an eye on Gina, not blow up half this place before she can find it!"

"Whatever." Peebri said as she headed for the door. "Let's see what else is around here."

Peecee and Peegi looked at each other and sighed. No matter what they said Peebri always seemed to do whatever she wanted and damn the consequences. They raced after the little robot before they lost track of her completely.

They left the decimated body of an android Nodoka.

oooooooooo

According the scanner Gina held, as she examined Yomiko a little more in depth, there was some nanites inside the girl. She knew that purging them from the girl's body would be easy enough, but she couldn't find her Nanomachine Collector Strip Roll, er…duct tape. Amazing machines, but way too easy to capture and contain.

The nanites explained how Yomiko's powers had been yanked out of control. She suspected that the computer of this place was examining all of them and their abilities. Just like it tried to do with Ranma when it made Ranko. She was just glad she didn't have to deal with her own double.

Ranko was standing over Yomiko, still wearing those glasses, and looking rather excited. "Ohhh, nanites! Those things can be nasty."

"True, but they aren't very bright machines and can be reprogrammed with a simple burst of energy on a specific energy band. I can have her purged of the things within ten minutes."

"Fascinating." Ranko said. "Are you going to destroy them?"

"No, I'll study them and see if I can adapt or improve them for my own purposes."

Yomiko sweatdropped as both girls started going into geek speak. That language where normal people could only understand about every tenth word, yet they were speaking the same language. Eventually Gina shook her self as she finished her scan and pulled a little pen like object out.

"Now, let me make one final scan and we'll be ready to remove those little pests." Gina explained as she pointed the pen at Yomiko, clicked a button, and a flashlight like beam shot out. A few minutes later all three girls were cleaning up the small mess. Gina waved Ranma over and grinned at him.

"And how is that cut of yours doing?"

Ranma paled a bit, glanced at his leg, and turned to run. Gina and Ranko grabbed him before he could get more than a few steps. "Now, come on…"

"You need to change the bandage."

"But…"

Gina smirked as Ranko suddenly stepped behind him and yanked his pants down, nearly causing Ranma to jump from them. She knelt by the bandage and started to pull it away as Ranko prepared a new bandage. Off to the side Yomiko stared at Ranma with a strange look in her eyes. She grinned a little and if Ranma had seen it, he would have ran to the edge off the island, jumped off, and swam home.

Good thing he didn't, especially when all three girl's eyes started to sparkle. "That isn't necessary Gina, I can change the bandage on my own."

Gina tutted. "I'm a professional Ranma, no need to be scared."

This only caused him to scowl at her, then he jumped away from both girls. "You will not pinch my butt!" Ranma yelled.

Ranko giggled. "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

All three girls giggled.

"Hmph!" Ranma growled, quickly grabbed his pants, and stalked off. "Lets get this day over with."

The girls quickly finished picking everything up even as Ranma stepped into the next room to put his pants back on. A few minutes later they moved into the next room and started making their way past all the piles of smoldering paper. Yomiko took the time to slowly collect as much of the un- burned pieces a she could.

She wasn't able to get more than a few dozen sheets of paper, but that would be enough for her purposes. While she was doing that she made a few experiments to make sure she had control of the paper back. She grinned a number of paper rabbits stated racing around the group and made them do some dancing as well.

"Perfect."

Ranma ignored the girl's blushes as she kept glancing between him and paper animals. Once again he noticed that he could sense a bit of Ki in the paper. He wondered if he could pull off something similar if he tried. It seemed to only be a Ki manipulation technique and he was getting quite good with that.

Even then he could try to use a bit of magic as well, but he would only rely on magic if he absolutely had to. Dr. Diggers still hadn't trained him much since he returned from Jade. He sent his senses out ahead of him and scanned the area. Behind him, Gina was reading the map she created.

"Ranma, there are several exits from this room besides the way we came in." Gina said as she showed him the map. "I think we'll find what we want if we head for this large room here."

"Sure, we can try each of those rooms. That other woman has to be around her somewhere."

"The sooner we find her, the better." Yomiko said.

"Of course we have to find her before the an android duplicate kills her." Ranko told them. "It's only logical, it's what I tried to do to Ranma after all."

Yomiko nearly fainted again.

"Ranko!" Gina snapped.

"Sorry, just thought she might want to know."

"I think she's fine." Ranma told them. "I haven't sensed anyone dying today, so she should still be alive."

"Oh thank god." Yomiko breathed.

It happened just as they were nearing a pair of double doors. On the last visit to this place Ranma could remember that entering rooms meant getting attacked almost constantly. This visit was a little different, the attacks weren't happening. Instead they were wasting their time wandering around looking at empty, over sized rooms.

Now things became more familiar as a part of the ceiling opened up and a small sphere came down. Ranma noticed it at the last second and only had time to bring his hands up as it fired. He cursed just as a white beam of energy fired at Gina.

Ranma blurred and appeared in front of her, blocking the laser with his hands and deflecting it into the floor. The girl's scrambled out of the way, Gina activating her personal forcefield, Yomiko forming a wall of paper, and Ranko fired a ball of Ki into the ceiling to destroy the little sphere. Even as it shorted out, several more lowered down and fire.

"Crap!" Ranma yelled. "Into the next room, this place is starting to fire at us again."

The spheres fired again and Ranma quickly deflected several shots into the floor. At the same time Ranko took a direct blast to the chest. Instead of being blown off her feet, she took the blast head on and didn't move an inch.

Her hair stood straight up and smoke wafted off her body as she stood there. Then she shook her head and continued forward. It took them several minutes to reach the door they wanted, but Ranma and Ranko continued to fire Ki blasts into the ceiling at the never ending spheres. Yomiko kept behind her shield and only had it breached in a couple of places.

"Just as dangerous as last time." Ranma yelled.

"Keep going! We're almost there!" Gina told them.

Ranko ran head and shoved the door open to make sure it was safe on the other side. They all heard Gina's device as it started to reach it's limits. The spherical shape of the shield was being overwhelmed by the continuous blasts of energy. Ranma was grinning a little as he batted away more and more blasts.

He had been getting quite bored with walking forever and not having anything happen. It was to bad they had been forced to abandon the scooters though. They wouldn't have made it through this barrage of fire. Gina's shield failed just as she ducked into the room.

After that Ranko and Yomiko ducked inside and let Ranma keep blocking the blasts as he backed into the open doorway. The instant he was through the door slammed shut and the blasts finally stopped. Gina's shield flickered back on for a couple of seconds before Gina turned it off and let it start recharging.

They all collapsed to the floor and gasped for air. It took several minutes for them to recover after that attack, but eventually Ranma managed to get back to his feet and look around. "Now where are?"

Gina pulled her scanner out and checked the map. "One of the smaller rooms off to the side of the bigger one we were trying to get to."

"We must have gotten turned a little as we were running."

This statement just made Gina nod. "We might want to wait for a little while before we move on to the next room though. I think we may be attacked again pretty soon and I want my force field to be at full power."

"Yeah, I need a little while to recover too." Ranma admitted, though reluctantly. "Ranko, you took a direct hit out there. Are you alright?"

The android looked fine, other than her clothing. Most of the front of her shirt was ripped, giving a brief view of her breasts every time she moved. "I'm in perfect health Ranma." She gave one of the tears a little pull and smirked at him. "Unless you want to check me for injuries."

"Ranko!" Gina yelled.

She smirked as Ranma blushed and looked away.

"I'm feeling a lot better now." Yomiko said as she walked over to Ranma and gave him a hug, which made him freeze up completely. "Thank you for saving my life."

"Um…heh, yeah."

She smiled at him in the same way that Brianna did whenever they passed in the hallway and Ranma felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. "I really want to pay you back for risking your life."

"Tha-that's fine, I'd do it for anyone."

"But you need a reward." She said, lowering her voice just a bit and placing her hand on his chest. "I'm willing…"

"Time to head for the next room!" Ranma yelled and pulled away. He marched, a little stiffly towards the other end of the room. The girls all pouted a little as Ranma moved away, but they quickly picked everything up and chased after him.

"One of these days…" Gina muttered as she glanced at Ranma. "His age doesn't matter any more and Brianna isn't the only one that can…"

"What was that Gina?" Ranko asked.

"Nothing!"

"I thought you might be thinking about Ryan."

Gina grumbled under her breath and walked a little faster, though she was blushing. Why was it whenever she came across a strong man, perfect abs, and her legs just went to jelly? She sighed.

As they approached the door, it slowly opened on it's own and they could see lights on in the next room. She checked her scanner again and couldn't tell what might be in the room from its shape. Ranma moved to the side of the door and looked inside without entering.

"Look at that." He said, pointing off to the side.

The girl's looked and gasped at the sight of Nodoka tied to a small plat form with some kind of device moving up and down her body using a red light to analyze her. Gina tapped a little button on her glasses.

"Nodoka!" Yomiko gasped. Ranko reached out and grabbed the dark haired girl before she could run into the room.

"Not yet, it may be a trap."

"Nodoka…"

"She's right." Gina said. "I'm detecting about ten force fields in place around the room keeping anyone from getting to her.

The red haired woman appeared to be unconscious. Ranma remembered when he was captured a few months before. Off to the side he could see an android being constructed. He wondered why they hadn't done so already.

"Nodoka seems to have been drugged. I'm detecting several odd substances in her body that I don't recognize."

"Nodoka is the descendant of a Samurai family that specialized in a Ki enhanced swords."

"That thing she used before wasn't a Ki enhancement." Ranma said.

"I know, she uses that on missions when she needs a bit more punch." Yomiko said with a shrug. "And just where is the sword, she doesn't have it on her. She carries it everywhere."

"I don't see it either." Gina said.

"I'm going to try and get her out of there." Ranma said.

"Be careful."

He nodded as he stepped through the door. He made it several steps closer to the machine and was about to ascend the stairs on the side when a burst of light hit him from the side. He flew off his feet, but managed to twist around before he hit the wall.

His legs absorbed the force of the blow and he dropped to the floor an could only gape at the thing in front of him. A Fifteen foot tall parrot stared down at him. It opened it's beak and instead of a squawk, a beam of energy fired out.

"Crap!"

He dove to the side as the beam vaporized a portion of the wall. Ranma barely registered that his shirt was completely gone and that he had a large bruise forming along his side. The girl's didn't know what to do and stayed back. Gina had a couple of things she could use to help them fight, but her light gate used the same source of power as her force field, and that source needed another half hour to recharge.

"Ranma!" Ranko yelled as she ran into the room. "I'll help!"

Ranma heard her, but he had to roll to the side as the giant bird nearly impaled him with its beak. He was instantly in motion as he ran and jumped for a kick, but the bird's wing came around and batted him across the room. This time he hit the back wall hard.

He slid to the floor with a loud groan. "That won't work."

Ranko brought her hands around and fired off a quick Ki blast, but the bird just stood there. It turned its head to look at her just as a hand grabbed her shoulder and tossed her into the air. Ranko looked down to see a strangely dressed old man with ratty looking clothes, a long beard, and an eye patch smirking at her.

His hand reached out and grabbed her ankle and with a strength that would be impossible for a normal human being, he snapped her around like a whip and slammed her head first into the floor.

Bang!

Picked her up, and did it again with a backwards swing.

Bang!

"Argh! Bitches, should know their place."

Bang! Bam! Bang!

The bird turned and pecked her right in the stomach and Ranko felt her body explode in shock as she was almost driven through the floor. The old man just stood there and laughed with his slightly scratchy voice.

Gina and Yomiko could only watch in horror as Ranko's body, sparks coming from her stomach, fell to the floor.

"She's an android?"

"Yeah, she's why I'm here. I want to figure out how some of her parts work. I wasn't able to properly reverse engineer some of her when I had make repairs last time." Gina explained. "That's why I need the computer files."

Yomiko nodded. "I see."

"Can you help?"

"Yes, a little, I'm not sure how long it would work."

"Those two are the muscle, if they fall, we're in deep poop."

Yomiko laughed.

Across the room Ranma slowly climbed back to his feet and growled. It was happening again. He would not loose to some idiot looking bird. He would not lose! Snarling, he stalked across the room towards where Ranko was laid out on the ground looking a little pale.

She tried to smile when she saw him coming. The bird squawked and turned towards him and he heard the pirate order it to finish the malfunctioning android off, and then deal with him. "No way."

"Argh! You humans have always been to weak and are easily killed." The pirate growled.

"I see you have a body now."

"Aye, I adapted it from the computer core. Your last visit taught me that I was over confident, so I decided to take things more slowly this time. The woman's android duplicate will be done in a matter of minutes."

"You're going down, ass wipe." Ranma stated just as the bird opened its beak right above Ranko. She looked up at it, but didn't show any fear.

Ranma growled as he brought his hands up, formed a blue sphere of energy, and threw it right into the thing's back. Instead of exploding, it seemed to coat against the thing's feathers and a strange sound filled the room, for several seconds.

The bird seemed to rear back as the energy coated it from beak to talon, slowly turning a slight blue color. Seconds later icicles descended to the floor. Ranma growled as he punched out, shattering the android bird into millions of little pieces.

The pirate, who Gina realized was the computer AI she dealt with the last time she was here, just stared in shock. "Humans can not do things like that!"

Ranma came to a stop a couple of feet from the guy and glared at him. "I'm tired of this crap. Now release the woman, or else you'll receive the same fate as the bird."

"You can destroy this body as many times as you like, but I'll always exist."

"I can always erase the places computer core." Ranma said, his voice colder than ice.

The pirate laughed. "Aye! You could, but how do you know that's the only place I be?"

This made Ranma shrug. "You wouldn't be here, which is the whole point. Computers aren't my thing, but I have learned a few things about them from Gina and her sister."

Panels in the ceiling silently opened to reveal stacks of loose paper. No one noticed though, except the Pirate, who just smirked. "I've got access to all kinds of attacks. I just have to delay you for five minutes and that woman's android duplicate will be ready."

"I only need a minute to deal with you." Growled Ranma. "Prepare to die."

A ball of bright energy formed in Ranma's hands as he brought them forward and sent a fire ball flying across the room. At the same time the Pirate waved his and the air was suddenly full of falling paper. This set off the fire ball only a few yards from Ranma's position.

Yomiko gasped as the paper fell and realized what was going on even as the paper suddenly took on a mind of its own. She could only watch as pieces of paper started to swarm around Ranma, slapping into this legs and arms faster than he could move. The burning pieces didn't seem to be burning right as they too glided towards Ranma. "He's going to be killed!"

"What!" Gina yelled.

"That's my power and it's being used to kill!" She gasped.

Covered from head to toe in paper, Ranma realized that it was covering him completely just before his face was swathed in paper. After that it fluttered in and started to form into a large ball of paper. He struggled against the stupid thing, but his arms and legs were held in place against his body.

"That pirate is cutting off Ranma's air. He's going to suffocate inside that ball."

Gina's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh crap!"

Suddenly a blue and yellow blur raced around her and Gina looked down to see Peebri racing across the floor. "Tally Ho!"

The back mounted mini canon that she carried around at all times was out, tracking a target, and firing. The pirate took the blast in the back and staggered forward, causing a noticeable change in the paper.

A second shot rang out and flew across the room and impacted the ball of paper. It exploded, forming an a cloud of confetti. Ranma knelt on the floor for several seconds as Peebri came to a stop and looked up at him.

"Peebri?"

"You took out the birdy, you're hero." The little robot smirked.

Ranma chuckled as he stood up. "Thanks, I owe you one."

"All birdy's must be shot."

Gina could only gape as Peegi and Peecee came out of nowhere. Stopping next to her and looking a little nervous. "Hi Gina."

"What are you three doing here? And where is Peebrit, she always hangs with you and Peebri."

"Peebrit is still MIA ma'am." Peecee said. "Brianna asked us to keep an eye on you since Ranma is a little green at the body guard biz."

Gina just shook her head and heard Yomiko. "What are these things?"

"My sister's creations. They are mini portable, AI computers, with explosives in them for emergencies. The one in the room there is the most dangerous one of all though."

Peegi sighed and nodded. "She just won't learn that all birds aren't bad."

"I'm not explosive." Peecee insisted. "I had Brianna turn that function off. As if anyone would want a pound of C4 in their head."

"Amen to that." Peegi said.

Inside the room, Ranma watched as the pirate pulled itself back to its feet. Peebri's blast had damaged it's clothes, but hasn't caused any major damage to the thing. He heard the little bot curse several times as it realized it as well.

"Where do all these little distractions keep coming from?" The pirate asked angrily.

Ranma shrugged. "Peebri, shoot that machine several times would you, just don't hurt that woman up on the table there."

The Peebo turned, glanced at the over sized machine, and nodded. "Sounds easy enough, and a lot of fun too."

"Don't you dare!" The pirate yelled just as Ranma blasted him with another fire ball, sending him flying across the room.

"Have fun Peebri."

The little bot looked gleeful as its cannon started firing shot after shot into the large machine. At first there were only dents, but after several blasts even there was a change in the sound of the machine. Ranma cracked his knuckles as he walked across the room.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as the little pink Peebo Peegi raced into the room to check on Ranko, who appeared to have shut down. Ranma knew it was likely she would be repaired eventually, so he wasn't too worried. Then he heard a sound he didn't want to hear and glanced up at the machine.

Even though it was being pummeled by the little bot, only the outer skin was being damaged at the moment. He saw a form rising from the top area of the machine that bore a striking resemblance to Nodoka. The biggest difference was that her skin was obviously plastic, nothing like Ranko's nearly human skin, and portions of her body had metal sticking through.

The pirate laughed as he came to his feet. "When the machine is endangered it will eject all functioning androids to protect itself. How do you think I came about?"

Ranma glared at the thing. "This is getting on my nerves."

"We are unstoppable!"

"That thing is holding Nodoka's Sword!" Yomiko yelled.

"Peebri, shoot the mechanical woman's head off." Ranma ordered.

"Gotcha!" Peebri yelled and took aim, but Android Nodoka blurred and vanished. She reappeared with a screech of metal as she sliced the little cannon off Peebri's back and sent it flying.

Peebri spun around and raced out of the room. "Retreat!"

The creepy looking Nodoka Android slowly relaxed and turned towards Ranma and leveled the sword at him. She smirked a little, her robotic eye glowing a deep red color. The blade started to flare with silver tendrils of fire.

Ranma did the only thing he could really do. He raced forward and exploded into motion. The android seemed to read his moves though and used the blade of the sword to slap him around at high speed. He jumped away from her, the skin on his hands and arms smoking from where the sword touched him.

Off to the side the pirate laughed. "Once we assimilate someone's knowledge, we always know it. Ranko there is one of us and everything she got from you, we have as well. That means we know all your martial arts kid. Arggh! HEHEHEH…My dear, please end this quickly."

Nodokabot nodded, and Ranma had a bad feeling. With Ranko down he was in a bad situation, but he wouldn't quit or ask for help. Not this time. He raced towards Nodoka and fired off a blast of Ki, but the android hopped over it with ease. The blade flared with energy as she brought it around and sent a wave of silver fire right into Ranma.

He screamed as it ripped through his body for several seconds before flinging him clear across the room. His mind barely registered the girl's screaming from the other room as he landed on his back and bounced. He could barely register that silver fire was cascading all over his body.

There was no way he would let something like that keep him down and he was back on his feet a few seconds later. 'Nodoka' raced across the room and sent another blast of silver fire at him. He felt a deep calm come over him in the midst of the attack and let Master Julia's training take over.

Twisting and weaving, he made his way through the poorly executed sword moves as the air rippled with the blade's power. A shape formed in his mind and he instinctively started to hop, weave, duck, and dodge everything that came his way as words echoed in his head.

'Nodoka's' attacks increased in speed as the seconds wore on, but Ranma knew he only had one chance a this, so he kept his cool. The girl's were confused at first, but then Gina noticed that the very air in the room was starting to get colder and colder. A little voice in the back of her mind was telling her to find a good hiding place.

Glancing at Yomiko, she grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her away from the doorway. A deep rumbling filled the air as a sudden breeze seemed to come from out of nowhere, confusing the pirate completely. The Peebos didn't know what was going on, but followed Gina's lead and got away from the doorway just as Ranma screamed.

"Hiryü Shöten Ha!"

The room exploded into a hurricane of swirling air, debris, and tons of silver fire. 'Nodoka' was pulled off the floor and sent crashing into the ceiling with a silent scream. The power of the move also sent the sword ricocheting off the ceiling, around behind the machine after several bounces.

At the outer edges of the room, the Pirate yelled out in shock and realized that the boy had learned some new tricks while he was gone. He made a run for it while he still had a chance. He would be able to come back at a later date and get his revenge.

High above them, the real Nodoka was still tied to the platform and not as unconscious as she was pretending. She had to fight the urge jump up and pull out a pair of fans. That was her son down there and he was magnificent! She hadn't missed the looks those girl's had given him either.

Gina and Yomiko huddled against the wall as a massive blast of fog like wind roared out of the door and into the next room. The sound was probably the most frightening thing Gina had ever heard, well, in the last year anyway. Eventually the wind died down and stopped completely.

Leaving a shirtless Ranma panting for air with his fist raised towards the ceiling. He heard a noise and looked up to see the pirate making his way over to Nodoka's platform. Groaning in exhaustion, Ranma rose to his feet and headed for the stair case.

"We have no further need of you." The pirate said as he pulled out a nasty looking cutlass. He smirked a bit as he let the light reflect off of it into Nodoka's eyes.

"I'll not give in that easily coward." Nodoka snapped.

"You lie helpless while I have the weapons to kill you. An easy victory."

"A cowards victory."

He shrugged. "My program doesn't say I have to be fair, only that the job get done."

She glared at him.

"Goodbye, flesh bag. Argh!" He said with an evil grin and brought the sword down on her neck.

Nodoka's eyes turned silver and an instant later her body exploded with fire. Light filled the room and they all heard a sickening sound of screaming and twisting metal. As the light slowly disapated, Ranma came to a stop about fifteen feet away and smirked a little.

The red haired woman was in a kneeling position, her sword out to the side, glaring at her opponent. One glance at the pirate and Ranma knew he didn't have to bother. The pirate looked like a train hit him. A giant gaping hole filled his chest and wiring, bits of plastic, and even fake blood fell to the floor.

The thing staggered back several steps, gaping at the damage. Nodoka bright the sword around and sent a truly massive burst of silver fire into the thing, vaporizing it on the spot. "There is more to this blade than throwing around blasts of fire."

She turned and looked down at Ranma. "Can you help me down from here? I accidentally destroyed the ladder."

Smirking a little, Ranma Ki jumped up to the platform, grabbed her. And they dropped to the ground with a couple of bounces. Ranma sat her on the ground. "There you go."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

A squeal filled the air and Yomiko ran over to Nodoka and gave her a giant hug. Ranma kept away from then and let them make up. At the same time Gina started pulling out all kinds of scanners.

"Lab Assistant second class, Peegi reporting for duty!" Peegi said.

Gina handed her a scanner and told her to go and find a terminal, hook it up, and start downloading everything. Peecee quickly followed after her. Off to the side Ranma could see Peebri looking around the edge of the door curiously, and then race over to where her gun landed and pick it up carefully.

The little blue peebo saw something and moved over to the machine a few yards from where Gina was working and looked inside. "Gasp! It's all mine!"

Gina looked up and saw Peebri cackling and came over. "What's got you so worked up?"

"Nothin! Go away!"

Glancing at the bot, and the little hole, she knelt down to look inside. Peebri moved to intercept her, but Gina just picked Peebri up by her extended ears. That allowed Gina to get a good look inside the machine and she grinned with little stars in her eyes. "I knew we would find something!"

"It's mine I tell you, mine!" Peebri yelled.

Ignoring the Peebo completely, Gina threw herself a little party, then pulled out her remote. "We can get that out of there easily, but right now I have a computer core to dismantal."

"It's mine! For video games! You got that!" Peebri yelled as Gina walked away.

"Uh huh." Gina muttered, little hearts in her eyes. She knew this mission would give her a pay off in the end. Then she saw Yomiko waving her over. "What's up?"

"Um…" Yomiko said. "I'm not staying around this place any longer than I have to. Me and Nodoka are going to head out."

"You should rest up first."

"Naw, we can be home in a few minutes with Nodoka's sword." Yomiko explained.

"Oh?"

"Yep, it's one of the main reasons why she's my partner." With a wave of her hand, all the little bits of paper around the room started to move around. A few seconds later Yomiko had her suitcase open and the paper quickly filled it, even reforming into regular sheets of paper.

"That's amazing." Gina said.

"Thank you."

"Let's go Yomi-chan." Nodoka said. "I'll see you in a couple of days as well."

Gina blinked. "Huh?"

Nodoka just grinned as she placed a hand on Yomiko's shoulder, held the sword high, and with a burst of silver fire they vanished. Off to the side Ranma was too tired to say anything. Gina just shrugged at the abrupt departure and went back to tinkering with her tools.

It took her ten minutes to even consider that the two had done anything other than leave. Her head snapped up and with a curse she ran across the room to her bag, she opened it and started pulling things out, taking a quick inventory. Ranma just watched as Gina said several rather dirty words.

"I've been robbed! The discs are gone!"

For some reason Ranma wanted to laugh as the girl ground her teeth in fury, then sighed. Peegi, turned to Peecee and told him to start downloading all the information once more. They already had the computer language cracked, so it was just a matter of transferring it again.

Gina stomped back over to the machine and started to work again. She continued to work like crazy for a few hours. Once he was rested up a little Ranma made his way over to where Ranko was laying on the floor. She weighed a lot more than she appeared.

"Gina, is there any way to get Ranko working again?"

The girl looked up and adjusted her glasses. Ranma edged away from the death glare he was getting from her. "Once I understand this machine I think I can repair her here. I just need to make some adjustments."

"Oh good."

Gina went back to cursing out lousy thieves.

oooooooooo

Kneeling on the floor, Gina fiddled with the dial of her machine. It looked like a little laptop, but it had a little satellite dish connected to it. The screen was mostly electronic snow, but after a second that stabilized into a complete picture. "Brianna?"

"I hear you Gina." Brianna said as she sat down in front of her computer at home.

"How's the transfer going?"

"Perfectly, the car's computer uplink is sending us tons of information, even got pics of the battle you had with those androids."

"Excellent. I was worried that something might go wrong."

"Nope, Peecee is helping out quite well as well. I knew his hard drive would need a lot of space, but that processor I created for him is simply incredible."

Peecee beamed from across the room.

"Good, we made out like bandits and my theory about this place was correct." Gina grinned.

"So, it's a Spaceship?"

"Yep, it's been her on the ocean for so long that over the centuries dirt started to collect on it. Eventually life forms found their way here and things proceeded naturally from there. This place is too big to move, but I think it's still flight worthy or can be repaired."

Brianna grinned. "I can't wait to check that place out. What about the computer though?"

"That's been disconnected for now. It needs a major defragmentation. Since it's an AI, not doing a defrag is a Bad thing."

Ranma peaked around Gina's shoulder. "Hi Brianna."

Brianna swallowed a mouth full of drool. "W-what happened to your…shirt, Ranma?"

"Lost it in a fight."

"I like the new look." She said with a grin.

Ranma laughed a little. "I bet you do."

"Ranma!" Gina yelled.

"What?"

"I can't believe you said that!"

"After feeling me up while changing my bandage, I'm entitled."

Gina palled. "You knew?"

"I'm not as ignorant now as I was when we first met."

Brianna started laughing. "We can always have another session in the VR room, it's up and running again."

"Ah…maybe some other time."

Brianna beamed at him. "I knew you would find your confidence."

"Whatever." Ranma stretched his arms and made both girl's blush. He grinned a little as he walked away.

"That was new." Brianna said once he was out of hearing range.

Gina nodded. "He's been acting like Ryan ever since he took out that android Nodoka and learned that new move."

"He's cocky then?"

"Yeah, that's it exactly."

Brianna grinned.

"I still say he's too young…" Gina muttered.

"That perfect ass of his tells me a completely different story sis."

"Shut up!" Gina yelled. She blushed a bright red.

"I knew it! You better not wear him out before you get back! I want some that hunk too!"

"Oh I don't know, wearing him out sounds like a grand idea." Gina said with a smirk.

They grinned at each other. Ranma's life had just gotten more complicated and if he knew about it, he would have ran for his life. What Digger's girls want, they get. Brianna shook herself out of a particular detailed day dream. "When you headed back?"

"I think we can head back later on today. I have a few things to drop off, a couple of thieves to track down, and Penny to pay back. I don't want her to hold this over my head like she did the last one."

"Good idea. She's been calling he here every five hours for the last day or so."

Gina sighed. "Yeah, I thought she might do that."

"Well, I'll let you get back to work Gina. Don't do anything I wouldn't and haven't done." She sang and the screen went dark.

This just made Gina huff.

oooooooooo

They spent another four days on the island, exploring and cataloging thousands of different areas. Gina was in her element, working nearly twenty four hours a day. She didn't even seem to be tired, as it the work energized her quite a bit. Ranma wasn't about to comment on the smell of the unwashed girl, he just tried to stay down wind.

So it was nearing midday when they finally made their way back to the surface. Gina took the time to repair the scooters now that she had the time and didn't want to walk all the way back. Gina had a gleam in her eye as she carefully placed a bag full of diamonds in the back seat.

Ranma didn't care about money, but apparently Gina needed to sell them to repair the house, pay Penny back, and have a little extra left over for food and clothes. Ranma also had to wonder how a girl covered in dust and grime could look as good as Gina did. Her aura told him she was very confident, but mischievous as well.

He shrugged. "So, we heading home from here?"

Gina nodded as she started checking the car over. "We should have everything packed and according to Brianna we need to get back as soon as we can. Penny is getting impatient. She's up to four phone calls a day."

"How about we take a few minutes to find a waterfall on this island to take a shower?" Ranko asked. "I feel dirty."

"Naw, we'll be fine till we get home. Brianna says repairs to the house are nearly completed now. All the rooms are rebuilt and stabilized, the bathrooms work, and the only thing left is the small details. Like furniture and stuff."

Ranko shrugged. "That's fine with me."

The Smell wafting off Gina made Ranma cringe, but he toughed it out and started thinking about his magic training. Anything to keep his mind occupied while they were flying back. Gina pulled a box from the back seat and opened it so that all four of the gold spheres, which returned to the car just after they did, landed and started transferring all their information into the box's hard drive.

Everything else was placed back in storage with the light gate. "Anyone want to explore around before we leave?" Gina asked.

"Naw, let's just go. I'm kind of hungry, maybe we can make some curry when we get home."

Ranko nodded. "Let's book."

Suddenly Brianna's three Peebos come racing up the path and jump in the back seat of the car. Peebri gives a wide grin. "Let's go. Been waiting forever for you to get done."

"Peebri…" Peegi growled.

"You've been so busy you didn't notice we were even in here?" Peebri asked, looking innocent. "Tsk tsk."

Gina frowned. "This sounds familiar."

Peecee grumbled about being innocent until he was thrust into this cruel, cruel world.

The island starts to shake and shudder violently. Gina fell to the ground and quickly crawled to the car. "What did you do, Peebri!"

"It wasn't me!" The peebo lied. "It was Peecee!"

Peecee sputtered at Peebri.

Ranma and Ranko kept their feet as they stumbled over to the car. The car started just as he shut the door and Gina hit several buttons. Thrusters on the bottom of the car fired, sending a wave of dust and smoke fling in all directions as it lifted into the air. Wings swung out from the sides and they shot forward.

"Whoaaaah!" Peebri yelled as she rolled backwards and got plastered against the back seat. Peegi and Peecee were on the floor, so they didn't go very far. The car swung around and skimmed over the trees as it picked up speed and altitude.

"Gina, look at the island!" Ranko exclaimed.

The car swung a little to the left and tipped, giving them all a front row seat. Below them geysers of water were firing into the air as the entire Islands started to sink. Little tidal waves flowed away from the thousand foot rock walls.

"Jinkies! Its sinking!"

"I didn't do nothing!" Peebri yelled.

"Peebri!" Peegi growled.

"I didn't do nothing!"

"You pushed the button!"

"I plead the fifth!"

"Peebri!"

As they argued, Gina eventually pieced together that they were messing around with one of the terminals so that Peebri could get some diamonds of her own to buy some video games with. Peecee didn't want anything to do with it and Peegi had tried to lecture Peebri.

Some how Peebri had activated part of the navigational computer's programming. This would have allowed the ship to fly in space and accidentally sent it to the bottom of the ocean. Gina would have been mad, but having a large bag of diamonds in the car helped curb her anger a little.

Ranma just watched out the open window as they circled the island until it sank completely. He noticed that Gina was saving the new coordinates in the cars computer. "You're not planning on coming back here are you?"

"No, but I'm picking something up on the scanners that has me curious. The ship passed something as it descended below the waves. Something big and I might just come back and check on that when I have the time. A lot of the best places to explore are underwater, something that would be bad for you."

He shuddered. "I haven't changed once in the last week or so and I'd like to keep it that way."

Gina mused. "Maybe you should have."

"What!" Ranma yelled.

"Well, it would have just been us girls. We could have had so much fun."

Ranma huffed as Gina laughed.

"You're to easy to rile up Ranma."

"Whatever."

The flight back to Atlanta was just as boring as the flight out, but they eventually made it back in one piece. They stopped at the house first, long enough to get cleaned up anyway. Gina and Brianna were gone by the time Ranma finished up, the note on the fridge said they were at the mall grabbing some new clothes.

Ranma was a bit surprise to find Peebri, Peegi, and Peecee sitting in the corner of the room though. They were all grumbling to themselves, so he decided not to get involved. He made his way outside and started to review the last few days while meditating.

Sorting his thoughts and reviewing all his actions. He paid especially close attention to how he pulled off his new move. For some reason he still wasn't quite sure how he pulled it off, but knew he would have it down within the week. This trip had also gotten him to think about his own life.

He hadn't seen his father in months now and wondered what the old fart was doing these days. Maybe it would be a good idea to take some time to go and find his family before the summer was up. Julia did want him to think for himself and not just react to anything that came along, but that meant…thinking for himself.

His Ki and magic were quite strong now, but he certainly wasn't close to mastering them yet. That would take a year or two of constant training. He didn't really want to commit himself to that just yet. Learning would have consumed him just a few months ago, and damn the consequences.

"Decisions, decisions…"

oooooooooo

At the same time several things were happening at once. Lord 'Peewee' Talon was just sending Ryoga into the final stages of his enhancement. He had managed to remove most of the 'Drowned Black Piglet' curse, but not all of it. Ryoga had darker skin because of this.

He also had a stronger physical build, bigger fangs, and some internal changes that wouldn't even be noticeable. Peewee added some chemicals to the tube that Ryoga was floating in and spent several minutes monitoring the levels until he was sure everything was working according to design.

oooooooooo

In New York, Agent Zane, the tall, dark skinned, red headed amazon agent stood before Agent M's desk. Beside her was another Agent named Will. They were partners and would be for another year or so. Most teams did five years stints before they got a new partner supplied to them.

With Britanny's husband Stripe joining the Agency, they needed to someone to train him. M wasn't to happy with the decision, even though he had been about to seek out Stripe himself, before this whole IB situation came down. M's boss had hired Stripe without consulting M about it.

M had to much to deal with at the moment to worry about it though. His initial failure at in Atlanta was the first time in years that a case ended up in the courts. Agent M was usually better at his job and people thought he might have just screwed up, but that wasn't an excuse.

So M adjusted his glasses, smiled at Stripe, who was standing beside Agent Will, and put on a happy face. "Welcome to the team Agent Stripe. For the next few months you will be an agent in training, moving from team to team until you are completely trained. Agents Will and Zane are to be your first assignment, they will teach you the basics, field survival, and the proper way to clean up a situation."

Stripe nodded, trying his best not to smirk at Agent M. "Thank you sir."

oooooooooo

"Sheila, I think it would be best if you escorted Raphiel back to Seer's Hamlet and let him get settled in again." Theo told the small girl.

"But sir, I'm waiting for Ranma to return from that quest with Gina and Ranko."

"I know, but I can't do it, and all you have to do is drop him off. Your brother Gar has told me that he and Onoli have managed to get the Hamlet back into a semblance of order. They need some help though and they thought this would be the perfect time to train Raphiel in emergency procedures."

"You're not trying to get rid of me are you?" Sheila growled.

"Of course not."

"And how long should this take?"

"It shouldn't take more than twenty four hours to get him settled with the others."

"Where? The Compound was leveled."

"The Edge Guard have been assigned a new headquarters until the Compound can be rebuilt. It should only be for about six months. A number of wizards are helping out to rebuild the destroyed houses and reweave the magic that keeps the city hidden."

"Alright sir. I'll be back tomorrow morning some time after breakfast."

"Thank you Sheila."

Sheila grabbed Raphiel's arm, who was standing nearby staring in awe at the light reflecting off the wall. She really had to wonder how much of his intelligence had survived a second resurrection. Dr. Diggers waved his hand and quickly opened the portal to Jade. They were gone a few seconds later.

"Perfect…"

A blur jumped across the room, tackled Theo, and pinned him to the floor. He looked up at his wife, who was wearing a skimpy robe, and smiled. "Theo, we have twenty four hours to ourselves."

"Indeed."

"Whatever should we do with ourselves?"

"Find a bed?"

"We don't need that in our own house." Julia said as she leaned down to kiss her husband. Soon they were too occupied to care about anything else. Luckily this was one of the few times when they really did have a few hours to themselves.

oooooooooo

"…and who might you be?" Gina asked. She was in her room using the wall sized computer screen and for once, her clothing wasn't strewn across the room. This was mainly because it was all destroyed, but she still came out of the deal with a clean room.

A very rare occurance.

On the screen, a man with blond hair and an angular face sat a his own desk. "My name is Joker, I'm an associate of Yomiko. I believe you met her a couple days ago?"

"She stole a disc from me and ruined eighteen hours of hard work." Gina snapped. "Now that the ship I got it from is gone, I can't replace it either. I was only able to recover about forty percent from the other terminals I came across."

Joker nodded, he had figured the girl would be mad with what Yomiko and Nodoka's actions. "I apologize for their actions and I'm willing to make a deal with you."

"What did you have in mind?"

"That information is incomplete, so how about I buy the missing information from you and compensate you for the theft?"

Gina nodded. This wasn't anything new to her, she was always trading information for favors and money. It just depending on who she was dealing with. Off to the side, a second computer was access certain hard drives and getting her a quick run down on just who Joker was. "How much are you offering?"

"A million British pounds for a complete file on everything found on the island before it sank."

Gina was tempted, that was a pretty good chunk of change and it would allow her to pay off a couple of their credit card accounts. "Deal, wire the money to this account and give me a secure hookup to send the information to. It's all been loaded into a secure computer already."

Joker took the information down and nodded. "The transfer will be done within the hour."

"Excellent."

"A pleasure doing business with you Miss Diggers." Joker said and hung up.

Gina set everything up and waited as her account was accessed and the money added. Close to one point two million dollars. She grinned and transferred the money to another account. Ever since Britanny spent went out and spent the emergency fun on shoes, she kept a secret account that no one could access without her permission.

She was about to start working on another project when the doorbell rang. Normally she would have let one of the others get the door, but her robots were still working on a few side projects. So she got up, headed upstairs, and opened the door. She nearly fell over in shock. "No-Nodoka?"

The red haired woman smiled. "Hello Gina Diggers, could we talk?"

"Ah…sure?" Gina muttered.

The woman stepped into the house, her sword strapped to her back, but bundled in a cloth. She was wearing an elaborate kimono her hair was perfect. Gina suspected something was up instantly. Nodoka glanced around the room. "I'd like to talk to you about Ranma?"

"What about him? You did give him a hard time during the last mission, nearly burned him to death at one point."

"Well, at first I didn't know who he was, but then he went and introduced himself as someone I thought was dead. I barely managed to hide my surprise and everything after that was a test."

Gina was confused. "Huh?"

"Miss Diggers, my full name is Nodoka Saotome and I'm Ranma's mother." Nodoka said.

"Fascinating!"

oooooooooo

To Be Continued…

Notes: This will be the last time the Island is used, Gina got what she wanted from it and Peebri sank it. Can't get any better than that. Ranma's personality is starting to change just a little bit, showing his cocky side and unending confidence, something he hasn't had since the beginning of chapter one. More hints to what Brianna may or may not have done to him in the VR room and proof that Ranma isn't quite as innocent as he likes to people to believe.

Peebos play a large role in Gold Digger so I've been using them a lot lately. They each have their own personalities and quirks that I've tried to show in the story. Peecee was introduced in the Peebomanga and is a data storage Peebo. I think Brianna created him to keep Peebri and Peegi occupied during the day with hundreds of different video games loaded into Peecee's memory. Of course Peebri once got to into playing Mario Brothers that she bounced off the heads of all the girls during dinner. Then wondered where her giant mushrume was.

Till next time!

Omake:

People gathered in and around Gina Digger's garage. All of them were women and quite a few of them looked a little flushed. One could see Gina leaning against the wall. Sheila stood beside Brianna, looking over the girl's shoulder.

Brianna herself had a small book in her hands that ever girl within twenty feet seemed to be starting at. Smiling, she grabbed a microphone. "Hello ladies! Welcome to the Ranma 'The Ultimate Hunk' Saotome fan club!"

The girls all yelled.

"I hold here in my hand a week's worth of photos! Ranma working out! Ranma showering!"

"Oooooh!"

"You got that right!" Brianna said as she hopped around happily. "We've even got him sleeping, posing, and fighting! This hunk can do it all!"

The girls screamed.

"We need money! So these exclusive, one of a kind photos will go to the highest bidder. We'll start at a thousand dollars! The nudes are worth at least that!"

"$1000!"

"$1500!"

Above the girls, on the roof, Ranma used his magic to blend in with the roof and keep hidden. He grit his teeth and swore that no one would see those photos, ever.

"$3000!"

"Now, now girls, no need to fight." Brianna told them. "Anyone else!"

"$5000!"

"$6000!"

Suddenly a strange sound fills the air and all the girls look around in confusion. Then a blue blur raced between the girl's feet, sending a couple of them flying. Peebri comes to a stop a few feet from Brianna and smirks.

"Peebri, what are…"

A mini harpoon fires from her back, snags the photo book, and retracts to Peebri. Laughing, the bot races out of the garage and sends a couple more girls flying. It's like something out of a Peanuts comic!

"Peebri! Get your butt back here!" Brianna yells at the fleeing Peebo.

Peebri just laughs and keeps going. The girl's all cry out as they realize their pictures are getting away. They all chase after the little robot with screams of rage. Ranma kind of wondered where they all grabbed those brooms, swords, and 2x4's from.

Peebri raced across the yard and races around the corner laughing loudly. Of course Brianna is in the lead, easily out pacing the girls with her half werecheetah DNA. "Peebri!"

Ranma jumps down and nearly lands on two girls. They look at him, sigh, and faint. Ignoring the two, he jumps over them, and takes off after Peebri as well. No one would get their hands on those pictures.

Inside the house, Peegi and Peecee are sitting on top of the couch looking out the window, watching Peebri. They figure nearly every girl in the neighborhood is out there chasing the little bot.

Brianna races by cursing up a storm, causing the two Peebos to fall off the couch and roll to the floor. Then Gina comes out of the house with a rifle like weapon with a weird tripod object sticking out of the barrel. She kneels down and fires a net over Peebri.

The girl's all cheer, the book I safe, but Ranma suddenly races through and grabs the book. He bounds over the pool, to the fence, and lands on the roof. The girl's all look up at him and sigh. Then Peebri suddenly extracts herself from the net and races across the yard, aims the harpoon, and snags the book again.

"It's mine! I tell you! HAHAHAHAHAH!"

"Peebri! Give that back!"

Whoosh! Snag!

Peebri slides to a stop and wonders where the book went, when she sees a blur of motion in the distance. Racing across the yard, Peebrit has the book and skids to a halt in front of Britanny. She picks up the book, pats the little Peebo on the head, and flips through it.

"Britanny!" Brianna yells as she stomps over.

"What?"

"What are you doing?"

"Looking at the pictures."

"I didn't think you were interested in Ranma?"

"I can always appreciate a man of his build." Brit says with a smirk. "Anyway, you have digital copies on Peecee's hard drive."

Brianna flinches. "Um…"

"Brianna!" All the girls yell at once.

Shelaughs nervously, backs away, and then makes a run for it with half the girl's chasing after her.


	17. Chapter 16

oooooooooo   
Golden Opportunity   
Chapter 16   
Cory D. Rose  
(c) 2006   
oooooooooo

The futuristic looking car sped down the street, squealed it's tires, and skidded to a stop facing a pair of open gates. A section of the ground just beyond the gates rose up just high enough for the car to enter. It moved down a ramp and entered the underground garage.

As it pulled into a small bay, computers activated and the car rose up into the air on a small lift. Machines automatically started changing the tires, fixing and tuning the engine, and downloading the information out of the on board computers. Gina, Brittany, and Ranma climbed out as all this was going on and unpacked their gear.

Gina almost skipped over to the little elevator that would take her up to her lab. "It's about time something went right for a change."

"Got that right, who knew that old hill would net us so much gold." Cheetah said as she unloaded several boxes of gleaming jewels and other precious metals.

"I estimate that we netted at least three hundred million dollars this. Enough to take care of the repairs bills to the house, and net us a small buffer for the next emergency." Gina explained. "Ranma, I'll set up that account for you as well. We wouldn't have gotten this stuff without you."

Cheetah huffed and frowned at her bandaged hands and foot. She hated dealing with Silver Burn because it took forever to heal. She was just happy that the burns weren't too bad, or they would leave scars. "How the hell was I supposed to know that the stupid vault was made out of silver?"

"Thanks Gina." Ranma said. "I need to take a shower too. "Running up that shaft was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It taxed my Ki and my magic, but next time it'll be a lot easier now that I've done it once."

Gina nodded. Her eyes gleamed she eyed the boxes. She hadn't been this excited in quite a while. As the others headed for their rooms, she entered her lab, checked a couple of things and stepped in front of the large window near the back. She still didn't like holding Daishi her like this, but there was no way she could just turn the monster over to the authorities.

According to the readings, he was still asleep and would be for some time.  
The gas in the room was doing its job. She made a notation in the computer about finding a better way to hold the jerk. Once that was done she put him out of her mind and checked the files uploaded from the car.

"Gina?"

She looked up to see Brianna standing in the doorway. "Hey Bri, what can I do for you?"

"Have you heard from Genn lately?"

Gina shook her head. "No I haven't. Genn hasn't been around for a couple of months now that I think about it."

"I wanted his help with something yesterday and realized I didn't know where he was." Brianna explained. "I remember him going with us on the trip to Jade a couple months back, but after that not a thing."

"That's right, he never came back with us. Said he had to visit someone."

"He didn't say who?"

Gina shook her head. "We'll have to find him. He can take care of himself though so I'm not that worried."

"Dad's still over on Jade. Let's ask him if he's heard from Genn." Brianna suggested.

"Did you manage to get all that data from the Island in the computer?" Gina asked as she agreed.

Brianna nodded. "It took a while though, you might want to think about getting an assistant by the way, but it's all in the new computer core.  
Putting it in that dimensional pocket space was a brilliant idea."

Preening, Gina had to smile and bask in her accomplishment. "Ranma gave me the idea when he explained that new idea he was working on from his book. Give me some time and we might have a portable version we can carry around with us that will make the light gate storage useless."

"I don't mind the light gate that much. It's flashy and gives a great show when it's needed."

Gina shrugged. "It's been unreliable and that isn't efficient."

"I only reprogrammed it a half dozen times." Brianna muttered. "So, what's are we going to do next?"

Adjusting her glasses, Gina's smirk turned into an evil grin. "Did I tell you that Ranma's mother showed up last week?"

"Do tell more." Brianna said with an equally evil smirk.

While those two were plotting, Ranma helped Britanny get up to her room. She wasn't in the best of shape, but insisted that the burns would heal in a day or two. Ranma took her word on it. "Where's your husband? He should be here for this I think."

Brit shrugged. "He's off with The Agency getting trained. He's been coming home completely exhausted lately. He says they're running him ragged most of the day."

"Ah, well he'll get used to that."

She nodded and pointed at her dresser. "Hand me that little pot over there."

"What is it?"

"I got it from Jetta. It's a balm that helps silver burn heal faster."

He handed it to her. "I'd better let you get to work. I want to read up on that move I've been studying."

"Have fun!" Cheetah yelled as he left the room. He didn't hear her whimpering start a few seconds later.

oooooooooo

"Two tons." Peewee said as he made a notation on his clipboard. He was observing his newest bodyguard going through his paces. Ryoga had come out of the chamber more enhanced than he should have been. Sure the process made one's muscles denser and stronger than normal, but the boy wasn't even straining under the two-ton load.

"Step back and let the load drop, Ryoga." Peewee ordered.

Ryoga was standing in the middle of the room, using the hydraulic press to test his new strength. He giggled to himself as he stepped back and let the press settle on the floor with a soft thud. There was no way anyone could stand up to his power now. "That was heavy, but not that heavy, can we try increasing the weight?"

"Of course." Peewee said and touched a dial. "It's at five thousand pounds now. Give it a go."

Grabbing the bar, Ryoga set his feet and heaved. He could really feel the weight now. Grunting, he slowly lifted it above his head. "Hell yeah!"

"Hey boss, the new guy is really strong." Zelda said as she looked over at Ryoga. The kid was young, but standing there with his shirt off, covered in sweat, she had to resist the urge to drool. "Humina…"

Off to the side her rival Link rolled her eyes. "He's cute, but just too stupid for my tastes."

"More for me then." Zelda snapped.

"I like the dark skin though and those little fangs are so cute." Link said, admiring the boy from the back. "Now I like this view."

"You stay away from him slut." Zelda growled.

"Don't make me kick your ass again Zelda." Link snapped back and cracked her knuckles.

Ryoga let the load fall when Peewee gave him a signal to do so. "What next"  
He said, interrupting them.

"How's your speed?" Peewee asked. He ignored the two girls behind them as they screamed at each other and started to fight. Attacks were launched as they flew at each other. Within seconds they were rolling around on the ground and pulling at each other's hair.

Peewee tried not to sweatdrop as they started ripping each other's clothing off. He watched as Ryoga went through several Kata to test his speed and balance. At first he had a few problems, but after a few minutes he figured out his new balance.

Throwing several punches and kicks, Ryoga shrugged and relaxed. "I'm a little faster, but not by much. I'd say it's normal."

"Run through a few of those Kata and find your new limits. I'll check back with you in an hour." Peewee said.

He nodded and got to work with several rather difficult kata to test his limits. Peewee turned around and blinked as Zelda and Link as they continued to rip each other's clothing off. He adjusted his glasses as they fogged up a bit. "Ladies?"

They stopped, Zelda had Link in a wrestling hold with her legs wrapped around Link's back. "Yes sir?" They asked at the same time.

"What have I told you about fighting in the lab?" He asked mildly.

They broke apart in an instant, blushing. "Sorry sir." They chorused.

"That's better, now Ryoga won't be ready for a few days yet and he needs some team work training. Once that's done I want you to go and break Daishi out of the Digger's home."

"She's just updated the place sir." Link said.

"I know and we would have gotten him out when they were rebuilding, but Ryoga wouldn't have been ready on time. Now that he's out of the chamber he needs time to get his bearings. So you two will be taking him on his first mission." Peewee explained.

"Sir, why don't we just leave Daishi where he is? He did fail after all"  
Link said.

"Daishi has his uses and I have a promise to keep to his family."

"What about Shin?"

"He's off on a special mission at the moment. That means I have to use you two idiots." Peewee snapped.

The laughed nervously, and knew that he just might fire them if they didn't work together and their enhancements weren't paid off yet. "We can get Daishi back, Lord Tallon.

"No, every time you two go up against the Diggers you fail. Every blasted time! You will take Ryoga with you and use him to get Daishi back."

They nodded.

"Now, as much as I enjoy looking at your torn clothing and naked bodies, I have things to do. So. Get. Out!"

They ran out the door, nearly tripping each other up in the process. "Bitch!"

"Slut!"

Ryoga walked over to Peewee. "Sir?"

"What is it Ryoga?"

"What's a slut?"

Peewee fell over and twitched. "Ah…"

oooooooooo

As Agent M glanced through the folder that had just been delivered to him, he didn't know what to think. He thought things were finally starting to get back to normal after that screw up down in Atlanta. Now he wasn't so sure. He had always tried to stay out of the political side of things and just do his job, but now those politics were starting to make their presence known.

The Mission seemed simple enough on the surface, but he was experienced enough to know when he was being set up. Setting the folder to the side he sighed and considered the options. The mission orders were simple enough, but it was the second page of orders that galled him. Direct orders from his superiors not to do certain things.

His hands were completely tied and there wasn't a thing he could do about it if he wanted to keep his job. They even mentioned the lawsuit that Gina Diggers has against him and The Agency just to make him understand that he was still in hot water.

Agent M shakes his head. "Debra?"

His partner/secretary steps into his office. She's wearing her usual outfit, a pale business suit. "Sir?"

"I need the files for Brittany Diggers and Brianna Diggers."

"General Clancy currently has the files sir. I'll have to run up to his office to get them."

That was a bit of disturbing information. "Understood, I just need to review some information before sending Xane and Will out on a mission. Then you can return them if you need to."

"I'll ask sir." Debra said as she left the office.

If he could have, he would have been sweating by now. Instead, M started looking through the mission folder again, looking for a loophole he could exploit, but they had thought of everything. They had even revoked his autonomy for this mission. All he could think was that The Agency was in deep trouble.

Several minutes later Debra stepped into his office and sat two folders down on is desk. "Here you go sir, he said he was finished with them and that we could return them to the main files when we're through."

"Thank you Debra."

She nodded and left the room as he picked up Brittany Digger's folder, other wise known as Cheetah. He recalled that when her adoptive father worked for the Agency years before, he has always talked about his girls. He and Theodore Diggers had rarely agreed on things either, always-butting heads about procedure or anything else.

Now his daughter was being pulled in and Theodore just might decided to interfere. M knew he would have to do something to hold off the Aura Mage's wrath if needed. He was just glad that Theo was currently on Jade taking care of some crisis over there. Still, it was just one simple spell to open a gate between Jade and Earth.

Now that he was looking at the folder he realized that he hadn't ever really paid much attention to Brittany after she stopped being Avenger's partner. He could recall investigating the arrest of a group of teachers using mind control drugs to control the students and that Avenger and Cheetah were involved in the capture.

They had gone on to a short career as superheroes while in college, breaking up several drug rings and taking down quite a few morons in costumes. They started to make a name for themselves among the citizens and that was when he stepped in and offered them a job at the Agency.

What a mistake that had been. Avenger accused him of forgetting who he really was and that she didn't want anything to do with his little club. Brittany had just flat out refused. About a year later Cheetah stopped playing superhero and went home. As a werecheetah she was unique individual, so someone was occasionally sent out to check on her.

He was a bit surprised to see that she had even left the planet once. She was gone for a few months and returned and instantly got married. She hadn't done much since, except shop a lot. She didn't even seem to be around the Digger's newest guest very much either, though they were both being trained by Julia Diggers.

The other sister, Brianna Diggers was essentially a clone of Brittany and Gina that was created by accident. Gina's genius had always surprised him. The girl seemed to be able to build anything that she set her mind to. That ability had transferred over to Brianna and focused mostly on unique weapons and computer reprogramming.

"Debra, could you send Xane and Will in here. I need to brief them on their mission."

"Of course sir."

It didn't take long for Agents Xane and Will to arrive. He heard Xane before he saw her. As she stopped at Debra's desk and begged a cinnamon roll out of her breakfast. He smirked a little as Debra tossed the box at Xane in a huff, just to get her to stop begging. M knew that Will was standing by making sure that Xane didn't break anything.

Xane, The Nubian Goddess of War, was strong enough to toss around tanks and almost completely invulnerable. Will, while not as strong as Xane, somehow managed to keep her from wrecking the building at any given time. M suspected that it was some kind of ESP talent, but Debra had told him that Xane liked to play with Will.

Whatever it was, it worked and he was all for it continuing. Xane's office door still wouldn't shut right after she shattered the door jam. At over seven feet, Xane tended to bang her head into the overhead doorjambs and then rip them out of her way in a fit of anger. He was glad that she remembered to duck most of the time though.

Today Xane was wearing her form fitting suit with a short skirt and ruffled sleeves. She had a set of tin of glasses perched on the end of her nose as she sauntered into the room. She was scarfing down a cinnamon roll happily. Will was dressed in his usual black suit with a white shirt.

"Mua eebed ua eea us 'ir?" Xane asked.

M just glared at her. "Yes, I have a mission for the two of you."

"Who's our adviser on this trip?" Will asked. As a newbie Agent he wasn't supposed to be out on his own for a while yet.

"No adviser Agent Will, this is a direct order from my bosses." Agent M explained as handed Will the folder. "I need the two of you to head back down to Atlanta."

"Mwwaa?" Xane muttered, still stuffing cinnamon rolls in her mouth.

"One of our sources told us that someone is going to try and assassinate the last werecheetah. I need the two of you to guard her for the rest of the week."

Will frowned. "Is that a good idea sir? The Diggers aren't exactly happy with us right now."

M nodded and sighed. "I know, I don't think it's a good idea either, but we have our orders. Keep a low profile and try to do it without letting them know your there."

Will gave M a shocked look as if to say 'yeah right' as he glanced at the seven foot Xane. M waved it off and continued. "Now there is a small possibility that Brianna Diggers will also be in danger since she is half werecheetah, so we need to keep an eye on her too."

"Under stood sir." Will said. "When do we leave."

Xane, having finally finished off nearly a dozen cinnamon rolls looked at the empty box as if it had betrayed her. "We can leave at any time." She said. "Might need to stop and get some more rolls though. These seem to be gone."

Will rolled his eyes. "Come on Xane, we need to find a good seat on the plane."

"Okay! You think they'll give us a lunch of some kind?"

Will just groaned in response.

oooooooooo

For the first time in the last few weeks Ranma was able to spend an entire morning doing what he wanted instead of learning something new. True to his training though, he was practicing to pass the time waiting for Master Julia to get back. To pass the time Ranko was his sparing partner as they bounced around the yard, off the walls, and flipped over the roof the house at break neck speeds.

Ranma was reminded of when he first fought her on the island a couple months back. He was positive that she had improved her skills quite a bit in that time. She seemed to be faster, more focused, and about twice as strong. This forced him to use more Ki to keep up with her as they tested each other's limits.

He even stopped holding back with the Neko-Ken technique, using everything except the Ki-claw attack. Ranko just smirked a little as she dodged, twisted, and sent him flying across the yard with a shoulder throw. Spinning in mid air, Ranma landed and skidded in the grass for several feet, using one hand to hold his body to the ground.

They fought silently, not yells, no grunts, or anything else. Even the people inside the house didn't know they were fighting unless they looked out the window. Ranma wasn't even resorting to his 'insult them till they get too pissed off to think straight' technique. Fighting at this level always left him feeling exhilarated and ready for more and he didn't waste any time launching another attack at Ranko.

Ranko, who seemed to know every move his father ever taught him, went from stance to stance, changing with every attack. It was at times like this that Ranma completely forgot she was a machine designed to mimic a human. He could even see a little sweat on her face and arms. Ranma detected a burst of Ki from Ranko and they clashed together, sending a shock wave across the yard.

Bouncing away from each other, Ranma jumped several yards into the air even as Ranko raced along the ground. Ranko had watched most of Ranma's training with Julia over the months so she was familiar with what Ranma's change of style. She adapted even as Ranma formed a ball of pale white Ki between his hands and launched at her.

She came to a stop, pivoted, and smacked the ball of Ki to the side. It vanished before it even had time to hit the ground. Ranma landed and almost flew across the ground as they started to lay into each other with a series of punches and kicks that were faster than the eye could see.

Suddenly Ranma shifted with snake like agility around a punch. Ranko almost cursed as he swept her feet out and sent her crashing to the ground. His fist came down and stopped right on her neck. "Got ya."

"I thought I had you stalemated for a little while there."

"You got into a pattern in the heat of the fight. Repeated the same attack combo several times and I took advantage of it."

Reviewing the last several seconds of the fight with her mind, she had to agree. "I'll do better."

Ranma laughed. "You gave me quite a run there. It was fun to go all out like that and not have to worry about hurting you."

Smirking, Ranko jumped to her feet and dusted her black pants off. Her red shirt had several rips along the sides that showed quite a bit of skin. Ranma had lost his shirt early in the sparing and was only wearing his pants. His back and arms were covered in dirt from the fight.

"We need to get cleaned up."

Ranma nodded as they headed for the back door when he remembered he had wanted to ask a question the night before. "Hey, do you know what was up with Brianna last night?"

"At what time?" Ranko tended to be exact about things.

"When she was crawling around the house with that flash light in her mouth, just after dinner?"

"She was looking for one of her missing Peebos. Peebrit has been missing since the explosion. At first Brianna thought she was destroyed, but according to the computers, Peebrit is somewhere under the house."

"Peebrit? That's the one based off of Britanny isn't it?"

The android nodded.

"Well I'm done training for the day, want to go and help Brianna once we get cleaned up? Crawling around all those tubes can't be very easy especially after the house was destroyed." Ranma suggested.

"Well, the lower floors actually survived for the most part. That shield you put up saved quite a bit."

Ranma snorted. "Yeah, but Gina's still complaining about the damage, but not so much now that she's got so much money coming in."

"True." Ranko said.

"I need a snack first." Ranma said as he passed through the kitchen. Peebri and Peegi were on the table, connected to a box with cables. Peebri looked in Ranma's direction.

"Look elsewhere. Nothing to see here, nothing at all." She intoned.

"Yeah right." Ranma muttered as he grabbed some orange juice and headed out of the room.

"I meant it!" Peebri yelled. "Nothing. To. See. Here!"

"Peebri, calm down." Peegi snapped.

Peebri growled.

After taking a quick shower and changing into jeans and a white muscle shirt, Ranma used his Ki to locate Brianna. He headed downstairs easily tracking her to the lowest level, just below the garage. It didn't surprise him to much to see that Ranko wasn't around though.

She tended to come and go at the oddest times. Shrugging, he found the door he was looking for and headed inside. It didn't take him long to spot Brianna tinkering with a one of her Peebos near a small hole in the wall. For a second he was reminded of their time in the VR world and blushed a little, but shrugged it off.

"Brianna."

Her head snapped up and she grinned. "Ranma, what are you doing down here?"

"Just finished my training and figured I'd give you a hand finding that missing Peebo."

"I've found her actually, but she's not moving and I'm, um…to big to get down where she is. I won't try unless it's as a last resort." Brianna said. Ranma couldn't help noticing that the black stripe over her left eye stood more than usual framed by her long blonde hair.

"So what's the plan?"

"I'm going to send this Peebo down to drag Peebrit back up here." Brianna shifted position a bit so that Ranma would have to look down the front of her shirt. She sighed in disappointment as he knelt down and looked into the hole.

"It seems wide enough to squeeze through."

"Yeah, but it's a tight fit, and I may not be able to get back out once I'm in there." She explained.

Ranma noticed she wasn't looking at him like she usually did, but he just nodded and didn't think anything of it. "You're the expert here so I'll take your word for it."

Nodding, Brianna finished tinkering with the Peebo and sat it on the floor. It spun around a couple of times and raced down the tube with a yell of glee. Brianna just smirked as she watched its progress on a little monitor by her knee that Ranma hadn't noticed.

Brianna suddenly leaned in close and smiled. "Want to play around while we wait?"

"Um…"

She spread her shirt a bit to give him a good view of her chest and smirked at his panicked face. "I've been wanting to get you alone for a while now"  
She said, crawling towards him.

Ranma wondered why the room suddenly felt quite a bit warmer than it did a few seconds before. He inched away from her. "What about the Peebo?"

Pouting, Brianna glanced at the screen and cursed. "It stopped next to Peebrit and isn't moving either! What the hell is going on down there?"

Ranma sighed with relief. What was it with girls lately? He liked Sheila and all of a sudden everyone seemed to want to get to know him better. Bad enough he caught Gina sneaking into his room one morning to replace something in his shower. He wasn't sure what it was, but she was blushing as she edged out and ran for her room.

Hearing a zipper, Ranma blinked and found Brianna pulling her pants off. He froze as she kicked them into his lap with a smirk, quickly followed by her shirt. She blushed a little as she gave him a wink. "I've got to go in. I'll need you to pull me out."

"Um, actually I can just…"

"I'll get Peebrit myself." Brianna insisted.

Shrugging, Ranma just nodded and couldn't help but watch as she pulled herself into the little tube. He was sure she didn't have to move her butt around like that to crawl through a tunnel though. Bending over, he watched as she shimmied down the tube.

He fell over as he spotted her panties in the middle of the tube about ten feet in. Grabbing his nose he staggered over to the wall. He would never understand girls no matter how much he tried. Shaking his head, he glanced at the little monitor on the floor and saw that Brianna found Peebrit and the little Peebo.

The uncharacteristic look of seriousness on her face caught his eye as she opened a couple of small hatches in the Peebos. The little Peebo seemed to wake up and spun around to gape at Brianna.

"Momma!" It yelled.

Peebrit on the other hand didn't even move. He watched as she tried several times to get her to reset, but it just didn't work. Shrugging, she started to back out and Ranma relaxed. Really, he should have known better after stripping the way she did.

"Ranma? Could you come in here and pull me out?" She called.

Ranma could actually hear the playfulness in her voice. He had to get out of this or else he was going to be in trouble with Sheila. Several thoughts ran through his mind as he considered this problem. Then the answer came to him in a flash.

Reaching into pocket, he pulled out a small note pad and flipped through several pages. His eyes narrowed as he pulled in a tiny amount of magic from all around him and formed a ball of water above his head. Seconds later he was female and took a second to adjust his pants. Smirking a little, she knelt down and started moving into the tube.

It was easier to move than she thought it would be. It only took her a few seconds to reach Brianna's underwear. Her male mind took a second to admire them as she grabbed them. She smirked even more as she carefully unbuttoned the front of her shirt and let her breasts show a little. The panties fit in her cleavage quite nicely.

She even let a little peak out. Didn't want to disappoint Brianna too much after all. She heard a bit of movement just a second before a little Peebo peaked around the corner up ahead. Its little eyes widened as it spotted Ranma heading her way.

"Who?" It asked.

"Just me Ranma." He whispered, trying to deepen her voice a little.

Suddenly Brianna's bare ankle was waving up and down behind the Peebo. "Oh Ranma, it's so tight in here. Give me a little tug." Brianna asked huskily.

Once she was in range, Ranma reached out to grab her ankle and pulled Brianna around the corner. She gave such a pulled that Brianna was nearly at her by the time the girl was there. Ranma shifted around a little and suddenly they were sharing the same space, breast to breast, so to speak.

Brianna's lust filled eyes suddenly noticed that Ranma wasn't a guy and widened to the size of dinner plates. At the same time Ranma remembered something from a movie and pressed herself to Brianna. "Now that I've got you, what do I do with you cutie?" She even went to kiss Brianna.

Like greased lightning, Brianna seemed to vanish so fast that Ranma fell to the floor. She heard her scrambling out of the tube behind her and running off. Seconds later Ranma was too busy laughing to wonder what else happened. Snickering, she looked up to see that Brianna had left the Peebos there.  
Grabbing them, Ranma quickly exited the tube.

Still snickering, Ranma conjured another ball of water to change back into a guy and decided it might be best for his health if he found a safe place to work out for a while. Setting Peebrit by the computer equipment, Ranma quickly headed for the front door. Brianna's panties landed on top of the other Peebo as Ranma raced out of the room.

"Hey, maybe I can go visit Sheila." Ranma said under his breath as he jumped to the nearest roof. Diggers mansion wasn't to far away after all. Plan in hand, he didn't waste any time racing out of the area.

Back in the house, Brianna was hunched over the toilet with the dry heaves.  
Gina was patting her on the back as she handed her sister a bottle of water.  
"It almost worked sis."

Brianna shuddered.

"He got you good."

"I forgot all about that stupid curse!" She moaned. "It was horrible."

"He's a tricky one."

"She's better built than me! Me!"

Gina sweatdropped. "Still…"

Brianna just nodded. "They were really soft too."

Gina backed out of the bathroom. She didn't want to hear anymore about Ranma's soft breasts. No, she was positive she didn't want to think about Ranma's breasts. She headed right for her computer, queued up a video of Ranma's morning work out, and played it on the wall screen.

"Oh yeah, that's the stuff." She drooled.

oooooooooo

Down in the tubes below the house, even lower than the garage, three little rats slowly made their way through a complicated maze of wires and other obstacles. These weren't ordinary rats, one had blue fur, another was almost pink, while the third was tan colored. The blue one led the way through the tunnels, only to stop every now and then as the tan one hissed at him and tried to bite his tail every few minutes.

Eventually the tree managed to make their way up into the house itself. Every now and then the blue rat would stop by a small panel and bite through some wires while the other two watched. The tan one seemed to be radiating a small aura as it glared at the blue furred rat.

It cringed back for a second before it would run off down the tunnel. Waving them along with its tail. Eventually it stopped and peaked around a corner and let the other two get a look. Just a little ways down was a small grate used by the air conditioning system to cool the house.

Running up to the grate, it looked out into the room beyond for a few seconds before nodding. The other two rats ran forward and looked out into Gina's main lab. "Gina Digger's Lab?" The tan one asked.

Blue nodded. "Yes, and just beyond in that little room with the smoky glass is the target."

"Like, what now?" The pink one asked.

The tan one ignored the pink one. "Gothwrain ordered us to get the behemoth free and have him attack the Diggers as a distraction."

"Lydia, I've been observing this place since before the explosion. I was lucky to survive that, but this lab didn't even take any damage. She repaired a few walls, that's about it."

Lydia scowled at Romeo. "We've heard it several times already. I'm just not sure how we are going to pull this off. Gothwrain didn't give us any special weapons or anything. At least last time we came here we had that collar and bell to put on the werecheetah."

"We just need to free the man." Romeo explained.

"I don't like this." Lydia muttered as she stared out into the room again.

Suddenly the pink one lifted its nose into the air and started sniffing.  
"Like, I smell something weird."

Romeo sniffed the air, but couldn't smell anything. "Are you sure Moisha?  
All I smell is dust."

Lydia sniffed as well. "I smell it too."

Then they heard a strange sound from behind them and turned around. Filling up most of the already cramped space was a rather large black pig with a bandana on its head. The fur on the rats backs stood up on end as the plastered themselves to the grate.

The thing snuffled and grunted at them as it moved forward to press its nose against the grate. Lydia noticed a small device in the pig's bandana. Then they heard another pig a few tunnels away. Squeaking in fear, the rats raced past the pig and headed down the tunnel. They would have to find another way into the room.

Before Romeo was even sent out on this mission the three of them were briefed on who might attack the Diggers while they were in the house. None of those briefings had included black pigs with bandanas. They rounded a corner and skidded at halt as another pig turned to look at them. It gave an annoyed oink as it looked at them.

The rats screamed, spun around, and with little paws skidding along the metal flooring of the tube, raced off in the opposite direction. The pig cocked it's head to the side, appeared to smirk, and raced off after them. The rats didn't know what to do as they took several blind turns.

Oink!

They screamed, turned, and raced down another tube. Suddenly they heard dozens of pigs in the tubes around them. Skidding to a halt, they looked around fearfully, and spotted a small hatch in the wall. Romeo spotted pigs headed for them from both ends of the tube and started to panic.

Lydia and Moisha, the pink rat, started to kick at the small hatch. It popped open and they dove through without a second thought. Lydia's tail grabbed Romeo and pulled him just as the pigs arrived. They huddled against the wall on the other side as a pig snout pushed through the hole.

Oink! Snuffle!

The three rats lay there gasping for air. They were happy to be away from the demon pigs and grateful that it wasn't werecheetah's instead. Lydia eventually recovered and glanced around. "It appears like we are in the walls of the house now."

Romeo sat up and nodded. "Gina uses her own materials to build and maintain this house, so it's unlike anything else. I know she's got a power source under the house to power everything because using electricity would be to expensive."

"Like, these walls are break away." Moesha said as she sniffed at the base of the wall."

"Last week t-the werecheetah accidentally punched through one of the walls"  
Romeo explained. "Gina had it fixed in a matter of hours."

"We're getting distracted. We need to free that guy and get him to attack the people here." Lydia said.

Romeo looked around. "We have to figure out where we are. I've never been in this part of the house before."

"I'm, like, not going back into those tubes." Moisha muttered.

Ooooooiiiinnnnkkkk!

The rats jumped a foot in the air, their little feet pumping already, and

then landed. They took off and vanished into the shadows. They didn't notice that one of the sensors had spotted them.

oooooooooo

With an enhanced jump, Ranma jumped off the roof and landed on the branch of a tree outside Diggers Mansion. Ranma hadn't had a chance to visit here in several weeks. Dr. Diggers liked to teach him over at Gina's place for some reason, but occasionally they would end up here instead.

Because of the nature of his powers, Ranma didn't really need Dr. Diggers to teach him as well as his other students. Ranma was still a bit wary of his magical abilities, but he learned more with every spell book he read. He was still working his way through the first level book, but within a month he expected to be to the second level spells.

Dr. Diggers was amazed at his progress too. Supposedly it took a year or more to master each level of magic and a decade or more for the high level magics. Still, training wasn't why Ranma was here. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure that Brianna wasn't following him. Snickering at what he did to her, he jumped to the ground.

Reaching out with his mind he pulled in a little magic and cast a quick spell. The focus of his eyes changed and he could see Dr. Digger's security spells layering the house and grounds. It didn't take him long to make to cross across the wide expanse of lawn to the front door.

Julia opened the door a few seconds after he knocked. "Ah, hello Ranma. You have the day off so what brings you by?"

"Just a little misunderstanding at Gina's place. I thought I'd stop by and see if Sheila wanted to go anywhere. Just to pass the time."

The red headed weaponsmaster eyed him for several seconds. "She's left earlier to take Raphael back to Jade."

"When is she due back?"

"Any time now actually." Julia explained as she headed into the house. It didn't Ranma long to realize that she wanted him to follow her. Shrugging, he rushed after her, vaulting a couple of couches to catch up.

A few minutes later they exited the back door. He heard the sounds of a fight long before he entered the back yard to see Julia's three students fighting each other. The two girls worked well together against the one guy Ranma wasn't interested in seeing again, Gar.

Gar was in his human form fending off both girls. Ranma could easily see how much Julia's style filled his ever move. During their fight in the swamp, Gar hadn't been fighting quite like this, in that fight he used more power and speed blows. Ranma could see much more skill in his movements now, more focus, and strategy.

The two girls were a mystery. "I see Gar is fighting quite well." Ranma offered.

"His mind is no longer affected with jealousy and anger, so he's regained his mental and spiritual balance."

"Who are the girls?"

"I didn't introduce them?"

Ranma shrugged. "I may have been distracted if you did."

"The one with long dark hair is Carla and the other one with short brown hair is Luan. Their were a pair of ninjas under Master Leep. When I was made a Master of the Leep school they became my students."

"They're very flexible and I see lots of Ninjitsu in their movements."

"Indeed, but they have expanded way beyond basic ninja moves."

He watched for a few seconds and nodded. Gar had nailed both girls quite hard already and they hadn't gone down. Julia motioned to Gar. "Watch how moves when the girls come at him. Do you see it?"

Ranma focused on Gar and watched for a few minutes. "Is he anticipating their moves? It's like he knows them too well."

"He's nearly at the stage in his training where he's ready to go to the next level. You're close to the same level, but you haven't picked up that special sense that he's currently using. Gar still needs a few more months of training before he reaches Adept level, but he's close."

"I don't recall him being that good when we fought." Ranma observed. "Was that because of his raging emotions?"

Julia looked impressed. "That's it exactly. It takes a special balance of mind, spirit, and body to master Leep Style. I believe you saw some of what he and his students did in Seer's Hamlet."

"Well not much, but enough to know that his students are quite good."

"Now if only he wasn't the worlds biggest pervert." Julia growled under her breath.

"What?"

"Nothing." Julia said a little too quickly.

"Ah, Ranma."

Turing around, Ranma watched as Dr. Diggers stepped outside and hugged his wife. "Sir."

"You get through that second level spell book?"

"Mostly, I've still got about ten spells left to memorize. And the theory on some of the others doesn't match what I can do so I'm not sure if I've got the spells down correctly or not. Otherwise they are simple enough."

"I thought that might be the case. Level one spells are mostly easy spells used to practice magic and build up your skills. You've put a whole new spin on those with your odd magical abilities." Theo said, then chuckled a little.. "Several of my colleagues, seem to think you might be a mutation of some kind."

He reached into his mage suit and pulled out a thin red book. "Look through this and see if it helps you. I got it from the library of a friend of mine. He'll need it back in a month or so though."

"I'll look through it as soon as I can." Ranma said as he took the book and put it inside his subspace pocket. He figured he'd be able to read it later, once it was safe to go back to Gina's place again. "Is Sheila back from dropping off Raphael yet?"

Theo shook his head. "The Edge Guard officials wanted to settle him in for a

few more weeks training. Luckily all Sheila has to do is drop him off. She's taking a few months off from the Edge Guard while the city is rebuilt."

"How are you feeling? You used up a lot of magic yesterday when you brought Raphael back."

Theo sighed. "I'll be fine with another night of deep sleep. I'm still trying to figure out why Natasha showed up."

"Who?" Ranma asked and saw Gar shudder as they mentioned the name. It didn't keep him from defending against the two girls though.

"Natasha is Queen of the Vampires and the Undead Realm. She is slightly dangerous when she sets her mind to something, though she seems to keep building kingdoms, and losing them after a few years. It's happened three times so far. She was after Raphael yesterday."

"But he's not dead."

"True, but he's not exactly alive either. At least in the normal way. Remember, Tanya created him originally as a golem to make Britanny split up with Stripe."

Ranma had heard the story when Sheila explained it to him, though none of the details. "I know a little bit about it, but not as much as the others."

This just made Julia laugh. "You'll get caught up eventually."

"True, and it's never boring around her for long."

"My girls tend to attract more than just dates." Theo muttered.

Ranma suddenly sensed a build up of magic inside the house and went inside just in time to see a portal of blinding white energy form in the middle of the room. Sheila was in her hybrid form as she came through, followed by another guy wearing a simple cloak. Ranma noticed that the guest was actually shorter than Sheila.

"Ranma!" She yelled and practically flew across the room to hug him. He caught her and noticed the guy in the cloak lowering his hood. Theo came up behind Ranma and started talking when he saw who was with Sheila.

"Ah, Genn, it's been quite a while."

Ranma couldn't place the name. "Who?"

"It's Genn, he lives at Gina's place these days. He went with you guys to Jade the first time a month or so ago."

A vague memory of a guy leaving the group right when they arrived came to Ranma. "I think I remember."

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Theo asked.

Genn shook his head. "No and I looked all over the place."

"You realize after all this time she might not be alive anymore?"

Genn shrugged. "Oh I'd know if she was dead sir, she's my mother after all, and we share a kind of link. I'd know if something bad had happened to her."

"Very well, have you considered looking here in the Earth Realm?"

"No sir, this realm wouldn't suit her needs."

Ranma couldn't follow the conversation at all. Other than that the kid seemed to be looking for his mother.

"You might be surprised. Those people who can move between here and Jade with ease tend to occupy both worlds. My home is here, but my job is there on Jade. She might be the same."

"I'll give it a shot sir." Genn said, and then looked at Ranma. "Who's this?  
One of Brianna's strays?"

Theo smirked. "No, one of Julia's students and mine as well. He has access to a unique form of magic that he's slowly starting to master."

Genn shrugged. "You shouldn't bother, he has next to no aura at all. I can 'see' it after all.

Theo glanced at Ranma in shock. "He's quite good actually."

Shrugging, Genn looked him up and down for a second and suddenly transformed into a rather good looking girl with long strawberry blonde hair, a muscular body, and wearing an outfit with barely concealed breasts. She leaned over to give him a better look. "Well, I wouldn't mind playing with him a little."

Ranma could only gape. He felt some kind of energy wash over him as the guy or girl transformed. He brushed it off and felt Sheila clutch at his arm a little tighter. "Back off."

"Or what?" She asked sultrily. "I can show you things you would be amazed to experience." Her breasts suddenly bounced right under Ranma's chin.

Now he wanted to groan. Were all girls here in America this forward, or just this group he hung out with lately? He also noticed that Sheila was starting to get mad as well. "Don't make me Kapowee you."

Genn suddenly changed into a buffer version of Ranma without a shirt. "How about I show you just what he can really do, my sweet?"

With a growl, Sheila transformed into her taller, stronger, human form and decked Genn. Theo winced as the boy flew back, crashed into the couch, and collapsed to the floor. Huffing, Sheila stood there for a second before transforming back to normal and hugging Ranma again.

"I like cheese." Genn declared and passed out.

"And to think I was nice enough to bring him back with me." Sheila muttered under her breath.

"Genn must be hungry." Julia said as she came up behind them.

"Hungry?" Ranma asked. "Why would a lack of food turn him into a pervert?"

Theo just chuckled as he left the room. "I'll leave that one up to you, dear."

"Coward!"

"Can't hear a thing." Theo called back.

With a sigh Julia turned back to Ranma. "Genn isn't human, he's from a race called Rakasha. It's very rare and they can live for millennia. They eat the ether or aura of humans."

"I still don't understand." Ranma said.

"To eat their victim has to be unconscious. Most Rakasha like to bed their victims until they pass out from pleasure, then dine in peace. It also makes the aura taste better supposedly."

"Cheese, yummy yummy cheese, its yellow." Genn muttered from the floor.

"I think I understand." Ranma said as he watched the Rakasha slowly shift back into the neutral form he, or it, had when arriving. Small, no muscle, and little horns on its head.

Shrugging, Ranma put Genn out of his mind and glanced at Sheila. "Want to go do something? I didn't want to do anything at Gina's house today."

"Sure!" Sheila said as she grabbed his arm. "Let's go get something to eat."

Smirking, Ranma nodded. "Sounds perfect."

oooooooooo

Several minutes after Ranma left, Brianna and Gina poked their heads out the front door and looked around. According to Gina's tech glasses, Ranma was moving away from the house, and heading for the mansion. Gina was relieved that her parents were willing to distract Ranma for a few hours.

They were pushing the furniture around the front room, making space for lots of people, when the doorbell rang. Gina quickly opened the door and let Nodoka Saotome and Yomiko Readman into the house. "Hi Auntie."

Nodoka smiled. "Hello Gina. Thanks for helping out like this."

"It's no problem. Ranma will be so surprised when he meets you properly"  
Gina said.

Yomiko nodded and frowned a little. There wasn't a book in sight. Not even a magazine or a coffee table book.

"Where is my son at the moment?" Nodoka asked excitedly.

"He's a few blocks from here at my parents mansion." Gina explained as she Double-checked her tracking device by tapping a button on her glasses. "He seems to be heading downtown with Sheila."

"Who is Sheila?" The red headed woman asked.

"Sheila is a girl that caught his eye a few weeks back. They've been getting to know each other ever since, though things were a bit rocky at first."

"She doesn't mind that he turns into a girl?"

Gina shook her head. "Ranma told her about it and she seemed to think it was neat."

Nodoka beamed. "I bet he's used it to learn all about the female body."

"Ah, I'm not sure." Gina conceded.

This just made Brianna snort. "He knows when to use it for the best effect"  
She shuddered.

Nodoka just grinned wider as she examined the girls around her. She just knew that Ranma liked them all. Once he picked the one he wanted, or even all of them, her Ranma would be ready to take his place as head of the family. Until then she would guide him carefully. "So Gina dear, ready to go?"

"Sure, let me grab my wallet and we can head out."

"You're going somewhere?" Yomiko asked.

"We need to get party supplies for Ranma's birthday party." Nodoka explained.

"I've been with him most of the week and he hasn't even mentioned it."

Brianna said. "He would have hinted at it at least once."

Gina came back into the room stuffing a card in on of her pockets. "I only know it's his birthday because Auntie here told me about it."

Nodoka looked perplexed. "Do you think he forgot?"

"Possible." Yomiko tossed out. "Or he doesn't know his own birthday."

The ensuing silence filled the room.

"How is that possible?" Brianna asked.

"His father." Nodoka said after a couple of minutes of thought.

"Dad told us he used magic to make sure Ranma's father wouldn't be able to find us for at least six months." Gina explained.

Nodoka grinned a little sadly. "Good, we don't need him spoiling things anyway. He hasn't been in my life for over a decade and I really don't want him back. I remember that he never did anything except lay around, drink, and eat. Once Ranma was born he added training Ranma to his list of chores. Eventually they vanished into the night and I haven't seen them since."

"You don't seem to broken up about it." Gina said.

Nodoka shrugged. "I nearly hunted Genma down so that I could slaughter his precious little plans. The only problem was that he was good at hiding and after a couple of months I had no clue where they were. The only clue I had was the never ending hoard of bill collectors that came to the house."

Brianna winced as she recalled one of Britanny's shoe shopping expeditions.  
"How did you survive?"

"The people I work with now hired me on for some consulting. I ended up working several cases and eventually made my way up to fieldwork. Even then I could barely keep up on the bills, so I closed the house down and changed my name so no one could find me. I've been doing quite well ever since." Nodoka explained.

"She's quite good too." Yomiko added. She was searching the nearby rooms as the others talked, but so far she hadn't found one book. She was starting to hyperventilate, how could these heathens survive without any books around?

She looked up as Ranko walked into the room to see everybody standing around. The android was wearing a skintight red and black body suit with the initials 'GD' scrolling down her right leg. The outfit used to belong to Gina, but the color scheme just didn't work for the blonde so she put it in her closet and forgot about it.

Ranko also had her hair pulled back into a pair of ponytails that framed her face. She grinned and sauntered over to the group. "Hi!"

Gina blinked and frowned as she watched Ranko.

"Hello again." Nodoka said as she looked the girl over. "You were with Ranma during that battle the other day."

"Yep, how are you doing? That machine that created your android copy can take a lot out of you humans. It usually leaves them unconscious for several hours." Ranko explained.

"I've always been rather hardy." Nodoka smirked. "So, how do you and my son get along?"

"Son?" Ranko asked, blinking in confusion.

"Ranma; he's my long lost son." Nodoka explained.

"Gina did you know about this?"

Nodding, Gina cringed a little at the odd look in the android's eyes. "Yeah,  
but only for a few days. Auntie here stopped by and we had a talk. Today's his birthday and we were thinking of throwing him a party."

"You do know that Ranma hasn't ever celebrated his birthday right?"

Nodoka frowned, but Gina just shrugged. "We suspected it. You have quite a few of his memories don't you? Could you tell us how he will react?"

Ranko hummed. "Shock I believe, and then maybe a fight if you surprise him too much. He has been training to fight all his life so its instinctive."

"That's fine." Nodoka said. "We just give him a little warning and everything will be good."

"Well, maybe it will. He's also been looking forward to seeing Sheila today.  
I'm not sure what all he has planed though."

"I'm tracking him with my glasses." Gina explained, giving them a little tap. "He's currently at the ice cream shop a couple miles away."

"Then we can go to the big mall I spotted on the way in." Yomiko said as she came back into the room. She looked a little miffed.

"Is something wrong?"

"Where are the books?"

Gina blinked. "Books? I always use my mini computer or a scroll screen."

"There aren't many books in the house." Ranko explained. "Gina and Brianna both tend to read everything off the computer."

Brianna nodded. "Though there might be a few floating around."

Yomiko looked like she was about to cry, her lip started trembling. This only made Nodoka sigh. She reached into her kimono and pulled out a little book. It vanished from her hand so fast that Nodoka took a second to count her fingers before looking at her partner. "Hey."

Ignoring Nodoka, Yomiko giggled as she read the little joke book. "He's so cute!"

Gina and Brianna gave Yomiko an odd look.

"She'll be fine, books just tend to make her act a little weird." Nodoka explained as she stepped over to the table and sat down. In the background, no one saw three little rats dash from under a chair and hide under the couch. Gina pulled up a chair and sat a small electronic note pad on the table.

"So Auntie, do we need to stop at the bank?"

"What for?" Nodoka asked.

"Money exchange."

Nodoka shook her head. "No, I have plenty of money with me. We just have to find some party supplies."

"Smurfy!" Gina crowed. "Now what did you have in mind?"

Ranko rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to call Gina a geek. And why did she suddenly have a craving for a tuna sandwich?

Grinning, Nodoka pulled a note pad out.

"I'll stay here while you go shopping." Ranko said as the craving got a little more intense. "I've got a couple of things to take care of."

"Oh?" Gina asked. She couldn't think of anything that the android might have to do now that Ranma was out of the house.

"I'm improving myself by going through some of your old college programs and notes. I want to be able to pull my weight better." Ranko lied, she really wanted that tuna.

"Ah, sure knock yourself out. How far along are you?"

"I've completed the freshman year courses so far this morning." Which she had, surprisingly enough.

"So quickly?" Nodoka gaped.

Ranko nodded. "I am an android. I scan all the information, and then quickly Cross-reference everything with my current systems. It takes about four hours to do a years worth of work and another couple of days to perform experiments."

"That's great! Do you think Ranma could do something like that?" Nodoka asked.

"I doubt it." Ranko admitted. "Genma never really let Ranma get an education. He had to be forced to let Ranma learn how to read and write and he's bad enough at those as it is. Still, he has been improving in all his educational areas since he arrived here so may be possible if you present it to him in the right way."

"I did update his knowledge a little when I healed him in the Regeneration Tank so he might be up to basic high school level. We might want to see about getting him enrolled in college." Gina said.

"Possible, though I was thinking of taking him back to Japan with me for a visit at some point." Nodoka said.

"Well it's something to think about anyway." Gina said and shrugged.

Ranko nodded. "He can be a little stubborn, so frame your request in a way that involves Martial arts."

This just made Nodoka start laughing. "I used to have to do the same thing to Genma. He was so focused on the art that he couldn't comprehend anything else."

"Then let's teach Ranma the glory and beauty of books." Yomiko said as she hugged her little book. It was cute, and warm, the paper was a crisp white. "They never let you down."

Gina, Nodoka, and Ranko backed up a little to let the woman have her little fantasy.

oooooooooo

Ranma and Sheila looked at the door before them as they arrived at the mini mall. Sheila was in her human form for this trip. Gina had explained to her that while Atlanta was used to Britanny and rarely had the police show up anymore, it would best not to press her luck. Atlanta tended to ignore most of the weirdness so long as it didn't cause any property damage.

That and Gina's expeditions tended to keep the local businesses in the black whenever Britanny went out to 'pick up a couple of items'. As they entered the mini mall, Ranma led her around to several stores. They even passed by a specialized all silk store that carried a wide range of fascinating clothing and bedding.

"I've only been here a couple of times since I arrived a few months ago, but you can find almost anything you need around here." Ranma explained.

In her human form, Sheila towered over Ranma, but she still managed to draw attention with her amazing curves and long reddish hair. She really hated the birth defect that made her human form have all the muscles and power. While her hybrid for could heal faster than any werecreature she knew. She pointed to the back of the shop. "Let's check those. They look like they might be interesting."

Ranma glanced in that direction and saw several styles of shirts. Unlike regular shirts, these were designed purely for fashion. "Interesting look." He commented as Sheila started looking for something that just might fit her.

He noticed a couple of sales girls head his way, spot Sheila, and gawk.  
Shaking his head, Ranma looked at the shirts again. "What about that one?"

Sheila looked over and saw that he was pointing at a wrap around shirt that wouldn't even cover her breasts, though the way they wrapped around her body would provide support. "Too revealing."

This just made Ranma shrug. "I've never had an eye for fashion. I just like to wear what fits and allows me to move around without ripping the clothing."

Sheila nodded. "That's why you wear the loose jeans and shirts."

"Yep."

"Girls have to put more effort into fashion Ranma."

He shrugged.

"Ranma!"

Ranma and Sheila jerked up at the same time and turned just as two girls ran over to them. It took him a second to remember them because he'd only met them once, just as Gina's house exploded. "Itchi, Asrial.

Both girls just grinned at him. Asrial spoke up first as she eyed Ranma like a piece of candy. "Me and Itchi were invited to come over to Gina's house this afternoon."

"Oh? She didn't mention anything about people coming over." Ranma muttered.

"Just a little get together." Itchi explained. "She said there were a few things she wanted to show us. Mimi is also invited, but we haven't been able to find her."

"Have you spotted her anywhere? Her and that cat of hers tend to end up in the oddest situations." Asrial explained.

"Nope." Ranma said. "Maybe she headed home. She really didn't like being here after surviving the destruction of Gina's house."

The two Quagmire girls looked at each other. "Naw, she said she would head back with us." Itchi told them.

"Who's this?" Asrial asked as she glanced at Sheila. Then up at Sheila, way up.

"I'm Sheila. Ranma and I are hanging around today."

"Would you like to join us? We'll be heading back to Gina's place here in a few hours." Ranma asked them, innocently.

Sheila gave them the evil eye.

"Ah, we better get going." Asrial said.

Itchi was about give Sheila a piece of her mind, when Asrial shook her head and dragged her off. They waved goodbye before they vanished from sight. Sheila sighed in relief once they were gone. She was glad the girls took the hint and took off.

"That was weird." Ranma muttered.

"I get that a lot." Sheila informed him. "Let's try that section of shirts over there. They look like they might actually fit me."

"Sure."

oooooooooo

Instead of using a normal van, the Agency gave them a mini van filled with little computer screens and gadgets. This was the one part of being a field agent that Agent Will actually liked. He didn't have to risk himself for silly reasons and he could sit back and just observe everything.

The Agency frowned on this though and insisted that he be assigned a partner to keep him in line. Agent Xane, seven foot tall Nubian warrior and drop dead gorgeous no matter how you looked at her. Even sitting in front of a mini computer an nibbling on a doughnut. It hadn't taken him long to notice that she always had something sugary nearby.

A seven-foot tall gorgeous Nubian Warrior did not look right wearing a dark brown power suit and skirt. Will thought to himself as he checked his cameras again. About an hour before they had arrived near Gina Digger's house. The van had instantly deployed a dozen flying micro cameras.

It had taken him several minutes to get them to monitor various sections of the house, but eventually wrangled them into doing what he wanted. The mini van was like one giant mobile computer set up. It could tap into any kind of internet signal, had cameras that recorded everything, and even had a coffee maker for those times when they had to spend hours watching non-moving objects.

His danger sense went off. Turning to the side his mind went to Defcon three as Xane yawned and stretched around. That suit did not do her body justice. She turned and noticed him watching and smirked.

"See something you like?"

Will shook himself. "Yep, too bad we're busy right now."

Xane pouted. She hated sitting inside these tiny flimsy things that broke so easily. "Let's just go to the house."

He nodded. "We need to make sure that the assassin M told us about isn't already here."

"Oh he wouldn't show up this early." Xane commented. "There's no sense of style showing up in the middle of the day. They'll do it at midnight."

Will gave her a weird look. "You can't be serious."

She nodded. "That's the way it always works."

"This isn't a movie."

She grinned at him. "Well I can think of more entertaining things to do while we wait."

"Let's just get to the house and see if we can spot anything." Will insisted as he opened the door to the van and jumped out.

Xane smirked a little as he walked away from the van.

oooooooooo

Inside the house three rats sneezed and looked confused.

"These things always end up with us beating someone up. He's got to be around her somewhere to do his job. It can't be that hard to find him."

"Now Xane, we're here to guard Britanny and Brianna, not beat up people. We need to wait till a target shows up."

"That boy just left the house a little while ago. Let's go get him."

"He's not the target." Will said patiently. When Xane got into one of these moods he started to get nervous. Now she was taking her jacket off. Why was she taking her jacket off!

"I'm hot, I feel icky!" Xane snapped.

"Just relax, the AC is on so everything is fine." He explained.

She glared at him, smirked, and started to unbutton her dress shirt. "Well I'm going to get comfortable. It's a good thing I wore my costume."

Will gulped and tried to not to look interested. Xane's old costume would make most bikini models blush and look for something to cover themselves. Her shirt soon joined the jacket, leaving her leaning back, her long red hair nearly touching the floor. When had she taken off her glasses? Her costume, if it could be called that, only covered up the bits that stood out, with cloth and feathers.

Now Will was really having problems focusing on the job. He gulped as sweat started to roll down her chest…

oooooooooo

Brianna had decided not to go to the store with Gina and the others. She just wasn't in the mood for some reason. So she went down to her lab and started tinkering with Peebrit. She wasn't sure what was wrong with her either. She knew that IB had done something to the little one and there wasn't any obvious damage.

As far as she could tell, Peebrit's insides were in perfect working order.  
Every one of the wiring connections were perfect, all the gears were solid, and she couldn't find any evidence that one of the power cells might be damaged. The only thing left was what she dreaded looking at, the programming.

Each of her bit-bombs had varying levels of artificial intelligence. Peebrit, Peebri, and Peegi were special creations based off her family and had similar personality quirks to a greater or lesser degree. Peebrit was based off her sister Britanny the werecheetah.

This meant that Peebrit could race around at really fast speeds and had been brought back to the house for speeding more than once. That hadn't happened lately, thank the gods, but with Peebrit out of action she wasn't sure what to do. Sure she could get her working again, but at this point she just might have to start over completely if IB compromised the little bit-bomb's programming.

Grabbing a couple of cables, she carefully plugged them into Peebrit's access ports. Ever since IB showed up she had been careful not to use a computer that was connected to the house's main system until it had been checked at least a dozen times for various kinds of hidden files that IB might have left. The toaster upstairs still tried to fire flaming toast at them occasionally.

That was why she was using a portable laptop with an exterior memory drive that Gina kept around to dispose of anything bits of IB that may be left even weeks after the attack. Peebrit's systems hummed to life for a few seconds, she even opened her eyes, but then quickly went dormant again. On the laptop programming information started to quickly scroll across the screen.

After several minutes Brianna was stumped. Peebrit's systems appeared to be in perfect running order and there was no sign of IB's reprogramming anywhere. She paced back and forth for several minutes trying to figure out what it could be, eventually she decided she would have to take a closer look. Grabbing a special dvd she used to create the Bit-bomb's personalities she inserted it in the laptop and let it run.

Peebrit's systems hummed to life again as every bit of information was scanned and compared to what should be there. The time said it would take several minutes, so she moved over to another computer where another Peebo was under construction. Gina's external memory drive had given her an idea. This Peebo was all about the memory drive.

Peebo Stealth, she would have to come up with a better name than that, was going to an intelligent mobile hardrive able to use several image projectors to turn invisible. It would be a couple of weeks before initial tests finished, but she already knew Stealth would be very handy. She just hoped Peegi and Peebri would get along with him. Peebri could be rather odd at times.

She was just installing Stealth's mini servos when her scan on Peebrit finished. After scanning through the information, she found that a core file corrupted beyond recognition. It was only five lines, but they were completely ripped apart. This was IB's handy work all right, but incomplete, as if Peebrit had cut turned herself off. Gina had to reformat nearly every system in the house to get rid of the little pest.

That was one thing Brianna wanted to avoid if at all possible. Reformatting Peebrit would destroy two solid years of AI development experience. She'd even lost the last copy she had on file to IB's rampage. It only took a few seconds to erase the lines and write them out the way they should look. Ten minute later, after a second scan of the programming, Brianna closed Peebrit up and hit the reset button.

"Momma!" Peebrit yelled.

"Peebrit, do a scan of your drives to see if anything is amiss." Brianna ordered.

"Sure." Peebrit's eyes scrunched up for several seconds. "Updates to my programming have been made in the last seventy-two hours. The first was forced into me, but didn't take. The second was just a few minutes ago."

Brianna frowned. "What was the first change supposed to do?"

"I was to seek out IB if he lost the fight and help bring him back." Peebrit explained. "Something interrupted the transfer of programming though and I shut myself down to keep it from happening again."

"You shut yourself down?" Brianna asked in surprise, even though the thought had crossed her mind. The bit-bombs didn't have that kind of programming. Still, Peebrit was an AI, so it might be possible considering some of the things Peebri had pulled recently.

Peebrit nodded. "Yep, it seemed like the only way to keep that monster out of my drives."

"That's amazing." Brianna muttered in shock.

"May I go see the others?"

"I'm not done running scans yet." Brianna said.

"But I'm bored." Peebrit complained.

"Now Peebrit, I need to find out what IB did to you. He finished some of your upgrades after all."

"Boring!" Peebrit snapped. Before Brianna could say anything, the cables popped out of Peebrit and the little bot raced off the table, landed with a bounce, and took off out of the lab.

"Peebrit! Come back here!" Brianna yelled as she nearly took off after the little bot. She screamed as another bit-bomb jumped out at her from under her chair, scaring the hell out of her. She heard it's snickers as it raced out of the room also.

Groaning, Brianna cursed under her breath as the tail end of Peebofox left the lab as well. She was really beginning to regret not going with Gina. As a matter of fact, she was thinking of heading to the weapons testing range to blow off some steam.

Suddenly Peebri raced by the door with half the Peebo in the house chasing her. She had a bra hanging from one of her guns. "I have the booty! Implement plan Zetta D, Spank the Monkey!"

After a small parade of Peebo and a couple of Gina's hurt bots, who also had various items of lace and silk on them, Peegi raced by looking panicked. She spotted Brianna, froze up for a second, then sped off.

Brianna sighed. It was going to be one of those days. She didn't want to put up with another of Peebri's ideas for fun. It was bad enough when she found out about video games, like Super Mario Brothers. She still couldn't figure how Peebrit managed to think that bouncing off people's heads would give her a mushroom.

Glancing to the side she noticed that one of Gina's access panels was blinking. Narrowing her eyes, Brianna walked over and gave it a tap. This particular warning was supposed to be followed by an alarm, an alarm that wasn't going off. Moving over to the main computer, she accessed the security grid and tracked down the source.

Something the size of a dog was in the houses access tubes. An area that couldn't be accessed from outside the house. All access hatches were inside the house, near the floor. Gina made sure of that during the rebuilding as she updated the inner security grid. The computer focused in on a second alarm as well.

Access the cameras, Brianna nearly fell out of her chair as she suddenly got to watch Peebri, a hundred or so Peebo, and a few bots having what looks like a party in the lower level. She was gonna have to have a little talk with her Peebo about their behavior lately. It just didn't follow the predictable paths anymore. One of Gina's hurt bots was break dancing on a large piece of cardboard.

Turning back to the first alert, ignoring the party, she checked her lab for anything and saw something hiding under a nearby bench with Gina's room scanning equipment. Pulling a large gun out of a nearby drawer, she blasted a hole in the table. With a loud oink, a small black pot bellied pig ran into view. It snorted at her and ran from the room. It's cute little bandana flopping around as it ran.

"What the hell is going on today?" Brianna muttered to herself as she chased after the thing. Instead she got to see its hind end as it wiggled through a small air vent just down the hall. It squealed louder as she approached and only managed to get through as Brianna started to take aim.

"Damn!" She growled.

Racing back to the lab, she ran over to one of the cupboards and pulled out an expensive pair of sun glasses and tapped the rim as she put them on. Just like Gina's normal glasses, these were designed to work as a mini scanner and heads up display. She gave a pair to Gina last Christmas.

She took a second to download the houses new designs into the glasses hard drive and had them access the alerts. Once that was done she adjusted the setting on her gun to stun. She wanted to take a look at those pigs.

Something just wasn't right about the one she was after. It was too intelligent. It was as if it knew right where to go.

oooooooooo

Xane had a handful of Will's coat as she tried to yank it off his body. While under normal circumstances Will might have liked to play around, he didn't think they should be doing so in the middle of a mission like this.

"I want to play." Xane said as she pulled on the coat with a little more muscle.

"Not now Xane, we might miss something.

"I'm bored and want some action." Xane grumbled, letting him go an moving back to her chair. She was still wearing her skirt, but that that was about it except for the bits of her costume peaking out here and there.

Will sighed in relief as he sat down in front of the computer again. He noticed something right away. "There are hostiles inside the house." He snapped.

"What?" Xane yelled.

"While you were distracting me hostiles got into the house. The transmitters are picking up at least thirty different hostiles moving around the house."

Xane leaned over him, absently pressing bits of her anatomy into the side of his face. He froze in shock and decided not to say anything, he was a man after all. "Let me take a closer look."

"These aren't human." The red headed Nubian said after a few seconds.

"How can you tell?"

"They don't have enough weight and mass." She explained and pointed at a dial he hadn't had a chance to look at yet.

"You're right, they appear to be small and mobile."

"Blondie's moving bombs?"

"Those are excluded from the readings." Will explained.

Xane frowned. "We need to get a closer look."

"We can get closer to the house I suppose, but…"

"Let's go." Xane grabbed her coat and pulled it on as she jumped out of the van, leaving her shirt behind. She buttoned it up and looked around. "Now which one was their house again.

Will slapped his forehead and sighed.

oooooooooo

Three little rats finally made their way deeper into the house, eventually entering Gina's second level lab. They made sure they were alone and suddenly transformed into their human hybrid forms. Lydia, Romeo, and Moisha stood against the wall. Lydia and Moisha were female, though complete opposites in looks.

Lydia was more like a boy than a girl, with small breasts, short messy hair, and a dark look in her eyes. On the other hand Moisha had long pinkish hair, very large breasts, an and was wearing a skintight leather outfit. The third was Romeo, a male, and he had short hair and an lanky build. All three of them had tails hanging to the floor and rat ears hiding in or among their. One will not mention their rat like buckteeth.

"Like, this is the right place?" Moesha asked.

Romeo looked around the darkened room. "I believe so. Over there is the cell door we were looking at earlier. This is just the first thing we have to do, so let's get this guy freed, I don't like being in this house at all."

The three of them carefully made their way across the room until they were standing in front of the large observation window next to the door. "Holy $#, he's $#&#$$# enormous."

"Like yeah." Moisha agreed. "Look at all those muscles."

Romeo rolled his eyes. "Come on, we have a job to do."

"Yeah, yeah, $#&." Lydia muttered as Romeo turned to the control panel.

He'd seen Gina type in the sequence several times during his earlier scouting missions through the house.

Lydia and Moisha watched the door stay closed. "Like what?"

"I've seen Gina Diggers enter this code at least half a dozen times, I memorized it." Romeo snapped as he typed the code again.

The door didn't budge.

"Like #$&." Lydia growled.

SNUFFLE!

Spinning around, the wererats found fifteen little black pot bellied pigs spread throughout the room. They were all crouched down as if they were going to attack. Lydia snorted and pulled her sword. "We aren't confined to those little passages anymore. We can fight back and I'm in the mood for a little bacon."

"Like, sounds good to me."

Romeo pulled a pair of daggers and grinned. "Indeed, let's play."

Suddenly silence filled the room. That was all the warning they had before a large stone like hand came out of the window behind them and latched onto the top of Romeo's head. He screamed as his feet left the ground. "What's this? A little rat out of its den, eh?" A voice graveled.

Lydia and Moisha jumped back as Gina's prisoner stepped out of the holding cell. A second man followed moving from behind him seconds later. This one was wearing a ratty green shirt and the same type of bandana as the pigs.

"Well, well, wererats. I've heard rumors of you, but never thought I'd see any of your kind."

With a flick of his wrist Daishi tossed Romeo across the room and bounced him off wall. He fell to the ground and didn't move. The rock man glared around him as he took notice of the room. "How long have I been in there, Ryoga?"

"Several months. Lord Talon told me that Gina Diggers didn't trust turning you over to the authorities. So she held you here."

Daishi flexed his arms. "I'd like to get back to Lord Talon and see if he can do anything about this rock."

"He wanted us to play with the Diggers first and bring back as many DNA samples as we could." Ryoga explained as he reached out suddenly and grabbed Moisha's hair, taking a few strands."

"Like ow!" She muttered backing away from the men. "You jerk!"

"Go away and I won't pound you into a pile of mush." Ryoga growled, revealing a pair of over sized fangs. All the pigs in the room suddenly growled as well. Causing both girls to quickly move over to Romeo and kneel down.

"I don't have to take that kind of #$& from anybody." Lydia snapped.

Ryoga and Daishi just chuckled.

"I don't care what you do." Daishi said as he moved towards the door. "I want my revenge on that $#$#$ that beat me up."

Ryoga nodded. Ranma was in this house somewhere and he planned to beat the hell out of him with his new strength. As they left the room they didn't see three rats heading for an air duct at the back of the lab, though the blue one was a bit wobbly.

"Where are the others? I figured Zelda and Ionis would be sent to get me out of here."

Ryoga coughed. "Well Ionis is currently on leave. He got mad at Lord Talon and said something he shouldn't have."

"Sounds just like him. He has a habit of doing things like that."

"Well right now Lord Talon is testing some of the Jusenkyo Waters on him to see how his magic will be affected by the change."

Daishi sweatdropped. "What was he turned into?"

"A worm." He was forced to stop and wait as Daishi fell to the ground laughing his ass off.

"You have to be k-kidding." Daishi gasped.

"Nope, the moron was ranting at Lord Talon and called him little worm."

This just set Daishi off again, this time he pounded a hole in the floor he was laughing so hard. "What about Janine? They used to be a couple if I recall right."

"That white haired girl?"

"Yeah her."

"Just about what you're doing actually, only she did it right in front of him before Lord Talon found a tank to put him in for study."

"Heh, the jerk had his uses. Still, that's great."

Click Shinnk!

They stopped and turned to see Brianna Diggers holding a rather large gun, pointing it right at them. A red laser light was plastered on Daishi's chest. "Alright Daishi, I don't know how you got out, but you are going back in."

"Yeah right." Daishi growled. "I think we just found out first target."

"I agree." Ryoga said and cracked his knuckles.

Brianna snorted. "I'm the one standing here with a fifty caliber machine gun pointed at you. I think I have the upper hand here."

Daishi just shrugged. "I'm basically bullet proof and the newbie here can take care of himself."

Eyes narrowing, Brianna decided that these two needed to know just who they were dealing with. "Boys."

From behind Brianna about three hundred little Peebo rolled into sight, clung to walls, or started hovering over her head. Daishi hadn't dealt with Peebo in some time, but he remembered how useful and explosive they were.

They were one of the few things that could damage him. "Girl, those little toys are useless against me."

"Toys, I've got better things to do than fight toys." Ryoga snorted.

This caused several Peebos to growl at him.

"Go back to your cell Daishi, or else I'll make you. Rock skin or not, they will hurt you."

"No."

The Peebo surged forward in one large, very cute, explosively mobile pack.  
This made Daishi hop back as the front row suddenly sparked. Ryoga ripped a panel out of the wall and slammed it on the ground between them and the Peebo.  
The explosion went off an instant later, vaporizing most of the wall.

Flying Peebos surged through the smoke, closely followed by an irritated Brianna as she looked around. Daishi and Ryoga weren't there anymore.  
"Spread out and search for them. Attack on sight!"

"Attack!" The Peebos yelled and raced down the hallway and around corner.

"Ah, cordite, it smells like my day is will be fun after all." Brianna muttered under her breath. And to think she started out chasing a little pot bellied pig that wandered into her lab. She took the fifty caliber off safety. This was going to be fun.

oooooooooo

"I can't believe you forgot where the house was located." Will snapped as he clung to the trunk of a tree over looking the Digger's yard."

Xane was crouching behind a small bush that barely hid her from sight. From the front it almost looked like a green bush with red hair high lights. "The whole place has completely changed since I was here and even then I wasn't part of the group that went to the house."

Will grunted.

"It's true!"

"…"

"Don't make me come up there and explain this to you." She growled.

"It's bad enough we had to follow the Ranma boy home, but I'm pretty sure he knew he was being followed. Otherwise he wouldn't have taken the long way here, through the car wash, over the school, and around the block three times before going home."

"He didn't have a clue." Xane muttered.

Higher up in the tree, Ranma rolled his eyes, and wondered if all Agency people were this inexperienced. Sheila was next to him fingering her sword as they watched the two argue. He was just glad that he had the two of them hidden from the Agency people by magic. They heard enough to know that they were there to try and protect someone.

The only thing they were missing was just who that was. Neither of them had mentioned a name just yet, but Ranma was patient, he could easily wait a few hours if needed. He wormed his way down the tree a little to get a little closer to Will's position. Maybe he would hear something from there.

They kept quiet as Will adjusted his binoculars. "Where could she be? The report said she returned to the house this morning with Gina Diggers and Ranma Saotome."

"She's watching TV or eating Doughnuts." She started drooling.

"Now Xane, that's pretty unlikely. Her file actually states that she's quite active, always moving around doing something."

Ranma frowned, he was narrowing things down a bit, but that description only fit a few people in the house.

"Then she's out of the house."

"I think she's here." Will insisted. "I'm just not sure where."

Xane sighed and slumped a little. "Then we wait until she comes out of the house or shows herself in a window."

"I suppose."

"Want to play around until then?" Xane suggested and looked up at him from the corner of her eye.

Even Ranma could hear the suggestion in the girl's voice and he sensed Sheila tensing up. They nearly sighed in relief when Will shook his head.  
"Keep your mind on the mission."

"But I'm bored."

"I don't care." Will snapped.

"Don't make me smack you." Xane snapped back.

Will tensed, adjusted his binoculars again, and focused on the side of the house. "What the hell is that?"

The tall red headed Nubian turned her head to see three little rats wiggling their way out of a hole in the wall. They dropped to the ground, ran around in a most peculiar way, and ran for the back fence. Everyone gasped as the rats suddenly turned into humans and hopped over the fence.

Two females and a male. One female was blonde and average looking, wearing a simple leather body suit. The other female had long pale pink hair, large breasts, and wearing a leather body suit that showed off her impressive legs. The guy was lanky, had bluish black hair, and was wearing a leather vest and pants.

"Wererats." Sheila growled.

Ranma could hear the shock and loathing in her voice. "You know them?"

"They are the vilest creatures on the face of the planet." Sheila whispered.  
"Assassins, murderers, criminals, are just some of the names you can call them. There used to be a law about killing them on sight in Seer's Hamlet. I'm not sure what the rules are here on Earth."

"Not now." Ranma said. "I'm still sensing something inside the house, but I don't' want those two to see us entering. It could cause problems."

"Can't we just knock them out?"

"The redheaded one is strong, very strong." Ranma hissed.

"We can just knock both of them out."

Ranma shook his head. He could feel a lot of power contained inside the red headed Agency woman. It was freaking him out more than a little. Even Master Julia didn't give off this much energy. "That woman worries me."

"We have to do something."

Nodding, Ranma decided to go inside even though the two Agents would see him entering. "I guess we head inside."

"Why now?"

"Staying here won't work any more." Ranma whispered back as he jumped, grabbed Sheila, and launched them out of the tree without the other two noticing. Ranma had a quickly recast his minor spell of silence and invisibility on them before they reached the ground.

He ran them around to the far side of the house before dropping it. Whatever was going on inside was even stronger from this angle. Shaking himself,  
Ranma was now positive that Daishi was out of his cell. He hadn't really been sure until then.

"I don't need this right now." Ranma muttered. He could easily recall his defeat at the monster's hands. "Daishi."

"You mentioned him before."

"Yeah, before coming to Jade I suffered several rather humiliating defeats.  
Daishi is a strong master Ninja. The first time we fought he pulled some moves on me that took me down easily. I trained myself up and had a rematch with him later and was winning, until he got this curse."

Ranma nodded. "Stone Skin and magically enhanced strength."

"When the body is armored, go for the eyes, ears, or family jewels to take them down." Sheila quoted.

Holding up his hand, Ranma formed his Ki Claws and watched as bits of static electricity arched from each of the claws jutting out from between his fingers. "These can cut him, but he shrugs off damage that would kill a normal person. I won our last fight, barely."

Sheila shrugged. "You're stronger now. A lot stronger with all the training you've done with Master Julia and Dr. Diggers."

"I know." Ranma said with a little shrug.

"Let's go get him then."

"You're right, but I'll need you to do something for me."

"What?"

"Brianna and Britanny are still in the house. I need you to get them out, so I can take on Daishi safely. There's a good chance he'll level the house if we leave him in there."

"Call Dr. Digger's and ask him to come over and help. He'll bring his wife, Gar, and those two students as well. We can take this character down quickly."

Gritting his teeth, Ranma looked away. "I'd rather do this alone."

"Why?"

"Because I have to show him that I'm not weak." Ranma admitted.

"Weak? Ranma you're one of the strongest people I've ever met."

"Yet every villain with a bad fashion sense that comes along is able to defeat me. I'm stronger than I was and I'll beat him with my bare hands"  
Ranma snapped.

Sheila could actually see a strange kind of pain in his eyes as he turned away and headed for the front door. Her fingers twitched as she grasped the handle of her sword. She recalled Ranma's fight against Gar. Ranma had really pushed himself during that fight.

Just like he was pushing himself now. She suddenly realized that Ranma was afraid to lose, something within him just pushed and pushed for him to beat the odds at all costs. This was why Julia had taken him on a student, his drive to win at all costs, even his own death.

She was going to give Ranma a good talking to about this. It didn't help that she didn't have any way to contact the mansion and ask for help though. They were on their own for this. She raced after Ranma and caught him just as he arrived at the front door.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Xane's back side sticking up over the little bush she was hiding behind. This would have made her laugh if Ranma hadn't been so serious about the situation. The door was open and he was inside before she could even blink. The front room was empty.

"Any clue where they are?"

"No, though Britanny should be upstairs in her room. It think she's asleep."

"I'll go get her. Why's she asleep this early in the day?"

"She was injured during the last mission by some silver. I think she said that it would take her about fifteen hours to heal."

"Would Daishi know?"

"I don't believe so." Ranma said.

They snapped around as they heard machine gun fire going off down stairs.  
Ranma ran over and hopped down the whole flight of stairs without touching the floor. "Get Brit!"

Growling, Sheila raced up the stairs. She had no clue where Britanny's bedroom was and listening to the gunfire down stairs was giving her goose bumps. Even know thing Diggers family, she wasn't all that used to technology. This was one of the prime reasons, the people, outlawed in the first place!

Even with the gunfire below, Sheila was able to peek her head into several rooms. Until she found the one she was looking for. Britanny was laying on her bed with her hands, feet, and even her back covered in bandages. One of her eyes opened as soon as the door opened.

"Sheila?" She slurred.

"Cheetah, we need to leave."

The werecheetah sat up and shook her head. She wore a sexy bra and panty combo that left nothing hidden. Blushing a little, Sheila stepped into the room and made her way over to the closet and tossed an outfit at Brit. "What's going on?" Britanny asked as she started to dress in skintight slacks, a halter-top, and her running shoes.

"Gina's prisoner escaped."

Cheetah paused for a second before she nodded. "Gina sometimes outsmarts herself. She plans for the big fancy plans and ends up being defeated by something as simple as a clothes pin." She stopped and noticed the gun fire below. "Brianna is trying to take the guy on?"

"Yeah, but Ranma is on his way down to help."

"Good, between the four of us we can take the moron down." Said Cheetah as she adjusted her clothing. She didn't' want it coming off in the middle of battle.

"Ranma may not let us help." Sheila told her.

"Why?"

"He barely beat the guy last time. I think he needs to do this alone."

"Well he's going to get some help anyway." Cheetah said.

"Heh, true. What about your wounds."

"They aren't that bad."

"You haven't had much time to heal Cheetah, this could be a major battle."

"I'm fine."

Sheila shrugged. She just needed to keep Cheetah away from the main battle. Still, she felt that something just wasn't right.

oooooooooo

Down in the hallway just outside Gina's lab, Daishi and Ryoga crouched on the ground. The walls, floor, and even the ceiling around them was full of bullet holes. Ryoga wasn't used to fighting people with guns, so he was a bit shocked at the amount of damage the thing caused.

Daishi's rock like skin was scratched up a little, but otherwise he was perfectly fine. He stood as Brianna dropped yet another empty bullet clip on the ground and slammed another in place. Light around the gun flared to life. "Listen here woman, I want Ranma here, right now, or I'll start throwing you through walls. That gun is useless against me."

"I can keep this up all day and we're just getting into my special ammunition." Brianna growled.

"Daishi, I'm getting a little tired of this girl." Ryoga snarled, yanking a bandanna off his head and snapping it with his wrist, making it go ridged.

"So, what are you going to do about it. You're the one hiding behind me."

Just as Brianna rose up to fire another two thousand rounds of her special ammunition, she saw the back haired boy throw something at her. On instinct she aimed at the object and pulled the trigger. A long yellow and black piece of cloth slammed into her gun barrel, almost splitting it in two.

"Oh $!"

The gun kicked and the side of her gun exploded from the side of the weapon. She dropped just as a massive amount of smoke started issuing from the gun. She dove to the floor as a dozen more objects flew through the air where her body was a few seconds before.

Daishi's hand came out of nowhere, grabbed her by the throat, and lifted her off the floor. She gasped for air and struggled against him as best she could. He growled at her. "You are going to be fun to play with as I destroy everything in this house."

"You won't…"

He squeezed, cutting her off before she could say anything. "I don't feel like hearing you talk."

"Just knock her out." Ryoga snapped. "We need to find Ranma. I want my revenge."

"Not…gasp…here." Brianna got out.

"He better be here, or else…"

"…down…gasp…town, date…"

"No he's not." Ryoga growled. "He's here in the house, my little friends say they saw him just a few minutes ago."

"Little friends?" Daishi asked.

"My pigs, they like to help me out."

"Good." Daishi said with smirk. "RANMA! GET YOUR LAZY ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW OR I'LL KILL THE GIRL!"

"Eeeep!" Eeeped Brianna.

"You will leave Mamma alone!" A dozen Peebos said as they appeared around their feet.

Ryoga noticed that their eyes were glowing. "The blasted things are preparing to blow up!"

"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine." Daishi said.

"I won't!"

"True, but I don't care about you."

"Heheheh."

"What?" Daishi growled, looking through the smoke as best he could.

"You just don't change do you Daishi."

"Ranma."

The smoke swirled around Ranma as he brushed it aside with his Ki. "You still talk too much Daishi."

Daishi grinned as he tossed Brianna into the lab. He used his fist to smash the control panel next to the door, causing it to shut and lock her inside. "That should keep her busy for a few minutes."

"Oh, she'll be out quicker than that. Those Peebos at your feet will make sure of that." Ranma said as the little bots moved over to the door. He spotted Ryoga standing beside Daishi as a bit more of the smoke cleared to reveal the pissed off teenager.

"Saotome." Ryoga snarled. "I'm going to send you to hell."

"Stay out of this kid, it's none of our concern."

Ryoga froze in shock and started to get even angrier. "I will make you PAY!"

This just made Ranma blink. "Who are you again? Go away, I've got a fight with Rock Man here."

"You will not ignore me!"

Ranma did just that as he turned back to Daishi. "Let's get this over with, then I can play toss the jerk around with your partner."

"Whatever you want. This little hallway gives me the advantage. I remember out last fight, you were jumping all over the place just to attack me. Here your movements will be restricted."

Ranma gave him a certain look. "I can beat you anywhere."

"He's mine." Ryoga growled as he stepped forward. "I've been waiting for this moment for over a year now. He's mine."

Daishi's eye slowly moved to the side until it was staring at Ryoga's face. "This is my revenge, kid."

As they started to glare at each other, Ranma flicked his hand at Brianna and watched as she vanished from the floor. He was pretty sure he did the teleport spell right and it hadn't backfired on him, so she would be fine. The Peebos around the started racing around looking for Brianna. Daishi's hand came up, grabbed Ryoga's head, and shoved it through the wall before the boy could so anything.

As Daishi brought his hand back, leaving Ryoga embedded in the wall, he glanced at Ranma. "He's got some skill, but he isn't at my level yet."

Ranma could feel the tension building in the air. "What was his name again?"

"Who cares?"

"True." Ranma said with a smirk.

They jumped forward and within the blink of an eye they were at each other's throats. Just as before, Daishi was faster than expected, but Ranma could tell that Daishi wasn't in shape like before. The man had lost his edge. On the other hand, Ranma could tell that all his recent training was paying off. He was faster than ever before.

Daishi's fist slammed into Ranma and sent him sailing down the hall. With a twist, Ranma bounced off the wall, to the ceiling, the wall, and landed on the floor. He could feel the massive bruise forming along his right shoulder as he stood there. It seemed the man hadn't lost any of his super strength while in Gina's cell. Crouching down, he tapped into the Neko-ken and flared his aura around him, mixing moves.

"Pathetic." He growled as he raced down the hall.

Growling, Daishi met him head on again. They traded blows for several minutes before Ranma got the upper hand. He flipped over Daishi, placed his hand on the man's shoulder, and pictured a pattern. The spell went off, forming a funnel of energy around Daishi as the man collapsed to his knees. The floor around him groaned, forming a dent.

"Gravity Well, a third level magic spell." Ranma explained for Daishi's benefit. "Right now you should weigh about five times more than normal. Considering your size I'd guess at around a ton or so."

The man started struggling to his feet. Ranma was a bit impressed by the man's will power. Even when he used the spell to practice on himself he had troubles moving as well. He figured this was why Daishi was hired as a body guard to the kid in the first place. He could even recall Gina mentioning something about a lack of genetic manipulation in Daishi's blood samples. Though at the time he had been floating in that stupid tank and trying to think of a way to get out that didn't involve breaking said tank.

Raising his hand, the field around Daishi increased its pressure. The floor under Daishi suddenly collapsed and the large man fell into the garage below. Cursing, Ranma jumped down the hall and landed on Daishi's head. Squatting down, he knocked on the guy's forehead a couple of times. "You aren't supposed to break the floor."

Since the spell wasn't affecting him anymore, Daishi tried to swat him off, but Ranma just used the extra space provided by the garage to jump and dodge the man's hand. He landed on his head again, leaned down, and thumped him over the head. "That's just impolite. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."

"I'm going to break you into little pieces!"

Laughing, Ranma jumped off his head again, twirled in mid air, and landed about ten feet away. He had a big smirk on his face as he faced Daishi. "You will have to do better than that. You aren't in my league anymore."

Daishi screamed in frustration, reached behind him to grab a large metal box, and hurled it at Ranma. With almost snake like abilities, Ranma weaved around and under the flying box. Just as it flew over his head Ranma positioned himself and fired a burst of Ki into Daishi's chest. For a brief second the whole garage was lit up with an eerie blue light.

Staggering back, Daishi examined the burnt rock of his chest in shock. Just a few months ago Ranma hasn't even been able to touch him except with that claw attack. He was prepared to defend against that, but he hadn't considered that Ranma would improve this much in such a short time. Daishi slowly straitened up and glared at Ranma.

He went from a stiff stance into a powerful haymaker in the blink of an eye. Reacting on instinct Ranma had his hand in the fist's path in an instant. It was only as the two met that Ranma remembered that Daishi was about ten times stronger. So the blow was barely blocked as it drove Ranma clear off his feet, connecting with his shoulder, and sent him stumbling back.

Ranma knew in an instant that his shoulder was dislocated. Holding his now useless arm with his off hand hurt like hell. Cursing under his breath, he stepped a few paces back as Daishi realized what he'd done and grinned. This only made the monster straiten up a little taller as their eyes met. "All the speed in the world is useless if I can tag you occasionally. I don't think you can take more than two or three hits and with that injured arm you won't be able to dodge as well."

Glaring at the monster, Ranma considered his options as the thing took a couple of steps towards him. He couldn't just pull his arm back into place. He needed to brace it against something before shoving it back into place. Daishi's fist flew forward once more and Ranma managed to drop and roll out of the way, but that didn't gain him much space.

Daishi knew he had the advantage now that he knew that Ranma's extra speed wouldn't be able to help much.

Then Ranma knelt forward, spreading his stance out and hissed like a cat. For a second Daishi would have sworn that he felt a strange energy building up around his body as Ranma started at him. "Bring it on." He taunted.

Tapping into the Neko-Ken while injured was a bit of a gamble, especially with the type of injury Ranma had taken. He could feel the extra energy flowing through his body and accelerating his healing ability to the various bruises. It couldn't do a thing about the dislocated shoulder though. Releasing his shoulder, Ranma sprang forward.

His good hand shot forward in a blur of motion. Before Daishi could retaliate, Ranma was several feet away smirking. Daishi only had a split second to realize that there was a bright red Peebo on his chest. It gave him the Evil Eye of Death and detonated. As did the two on his back, one each leg, and one that dropped down from the ceiling screaming 'Banzai!'

The multiple explosions sent vibrations throughout the house, but Ranma ignored them as he raced over to the nearest wall to put his dislocated shoulder back into place. Once that was done, he took a second to cast a healing spell on the arm to take care of the remaining damage. His arm would be tender for a couple of days, but other than that it was usable again.

Glancing back at the spot where Daishi had been before the explosion, he noted the jerk was still standing there. Of course there were now little cracks all over his upper body from the shaped charges the Peebo used in their attacks. He was glad he'd thought to use the things in his attack. He'd noticed as they fought that Daishi kept one arm in the same position all the time.

He was positive that it was to block most of his Neko-Ken attacks. Of course, just when you think the fight is over another opponent has to show up. Ranma was starting to notice a pattern from the people attacking him these days. Sighing, he turned just as Ryoga landed on the floor and saw what had happened to Daishi.

"You really should have just gone home." Ranma commented.

Ryoga turned in his direction. "I want my revenge Ranma."

"You think I don't recall how you didn't show up for the last match Ryoga?"

"I showed up and you weren't there!"

"Three days Ryoga, three days and nights I waited. When most people would have left after a couple of hours. You forfeited that fight Ryoga and you know it." Ranma snapped.

"You broke a promise between men Ranma and I will have my revenge!" A dozen bandana suddenly filled the air as they flew at Ranma.

Evading them was easy and Ranma so barely paid any attention to them. "Ryoga, have you improved at all in the last couple of years?"

Instead of losing his temper, Ryoga just folded his arms and sneered. "You haven't seen anything yet. That stone moron over there is supposed to be a better fighter than both of us put together, but he's so dependent on his stone body that he's practically useless. I've practiced day and night for the last two years, increasing my strength, my speed, and even my skills. You don't stand a chance."

"Brit put it best Ryoga, your lips are flapping, but I don't see 'nothin happening." Ranma snapped and formed a ball of fire in his hand. "How about I show you some of my new techniques."

"Ranma Saotome, Prepare to Die." Ryoga gaveled in a menacing tone of voice.

oooooooooo

Even as the fight raged downstairs Sheila and Britanny were just reaching the living room. Even though Britanny denied it, Sheila could tell the werecheetah wasn't moving normally. She was even wearing a full body suit instead of her normal revealing clothing.

"Let's just get out of here and let Ranma take care of this." Sheila insisted.

"He needs help. Daishi has always given him a problem."

"Ranma can take care of it."

"We can still help." Brit insisted as she leaned over the railing and tried to see downstairs. "Listen to them go! I bet they're tearing the place up with that much noise. It reminds me of the time that talking dog attacked the house with those clone monsters."

"Britanny just leave it…"

Sheila stopped talking in mid sentence and looked around the room slowly. Britanny was giving her an odd look as she noticed it too.

"I smell a rat." She snarled.

"Wererats, and their inside the house already."

"Those blasted Rats have shown up twice already." Britanny growled as she scanned the kitchen sniffing the air as she moved around. She quickly made her way over to a small grate next to the door, near the floor. "Here."

Sheila knelt down and noticed the smell as well. "They are inside this little hole?"

"Air Conditioning grate. Gina used it to cool the house down during the summer." Brit explained, remembering that Sheila didn't have much experience with technology.

"Why would they be in there?"

"Because we can't get in there and they can spy on us."

"I smell something else as well."

Brit nodded. "And it smells horrible."

"What do you want to do?" Sheila asked. "I might be able to squeeze myself inside there in full jaguar form, but I wouldn't be able to move around that well."

"We need to flush them out."

"Any ideas?"

Whump!

"Not…" Britanny's face suddenly went blank as she exploded into motion, grabbed Sheila, and made it outside in the blink of an eye. They stopped just in time to see a boy explode from the roof of the house and fly into the horizon. Dust and smoke started drifting out of the open kitchen door.

"What the heck?" Sheila gasped.

Then they saw Ranma slowly rising out of the hole in the house. A pale blue glow surrounded him as he hovered in the air watching the boy vanish into low earth orbit. Down below Britanny had never seen Ranma like this. His shirt was ripped to shreds and she could see open wounds on his chest and back. He glanced down at them.

His eyes were glowing a light blue and almost feral in their intensity. Sheila started purring at the sight. Britanny gave her friend a weird look. "Sheila?"

"He's gorgeous, so…so…manly."

She gave the boy another look and shrugged. "Not my type really."

"You've already got Stripe, you don't need anymore than that."

"Though I suppose he does have a cat like intensity." She teased.

"Hey."

"Does this mean the emergency is over?"

"The wererats are still here, and whatever that other smell was." Sheila reminded her.

Ranma floated to the ground and landed beside the house. The glow slowly vanished as he walked over to the girls. "Thanks for keeping an eye on Britanny, Sheila."

"Call me Cheetah." Britanny said and thumped him over the head. "I prefer that."

With a shrug, Ranma nodded.

"Who was that guy? It wasn't Daishi, he was to small, and actually looked human."

"Daishi is down in the garage just below Gina's lab. He's not in the best of shape. That guy…" Ranma waved in Ryoga's direction. "Was the guy that freed him in the first place. Ryoga Hibiki and he was quite a bit stronger than the last time we met."

"Gave you a challenge?"

"Daishi was easy enough to take down with Brianna's Peebos running all over the place. Ryoga on the other was able to hold his own against me."

"What all did he do?"

At this Ranma hesitated. "Well, at first we were fighting hand to hand like I usually do and he wasn't doing so well against me. Then he…picked up one of Gina's cars and started swinging it around at me with ease. He was batting me around the garage and laughing about it."

The girls blinked. "Those cars usually weigh around a ton Ranma. I used to bench press them before Gina built my hydraulic press." Cheetah said.

"It feels a ton too."

Now that she looked a little closer Sheila could see a bruise on Ranma's chest that bore a striking resemblance to tire tracks. "What happened to the car?"

"Ah, I sort of, well, um...blew it up?" Ranma said nervously and scratched the back of his head.

Cheetah whistled. "Gina is going to be so pissed."

Ranma laughed nervously.

Of course, at that instant, Gina came racing back from the mall. Her tires squealing as the skidded around the corner and onto the property. She jumped out and gaped at the smoke now rising from the hole n the room, fell to her knees, and screamed. "NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Ranma, Britanny, and Sheila all winced.

"She'll get over it." Ranma said as he turned to head back to the house. "I'll be in the house if you need me."

Cheetah grabbed his shoulder. "You don't get to run away."

"I don't?"

"No."

Ranma cursed under his breath as Gina came running up, dove over Cheetah with an insane look in her eyes, and tackled him. They rolled a few feet before coming to a stop with Gina on his chest. She started to strangle him and bang his head into the dirt. "What did you do!"

The girls had to drag Gina off him by force. The girl was snarling like wild animal so Ranma quickly made his way into the house. Maybe fighting the big goof in the basement, away from the lab hadn't been the best idea after all. He just didn't under stand girls at all.

oooooooooo

It didn't' take long for Ranma to learn to avoid Gina after that. Every time he entered a room, Gina would glare at him and subtly glance at the roof, and then turn an even darker glare on him. It only took him ten minutes to learn that one, but he learned it well. Do not, under any circumstances, fight in the house. Within the hour she had him on the roof patching up the hole.

Of course it didn't help that she was standing over him with an energy whip snarling. Cheetah and Sheila had mysteriously disappeared as well. Ranma could have finished the job quickly, but one look at Gina squashed that idea. Sighing, he took a few hours to fix the hole, then the shingles, and the sun panels Gina used to add extra power to the house.

Once that was done she grabbed his ear, twisted, and dragged him down to the basement to fix everything that was broken down there too. So Ranma didn't see the girls working away in the main room of the house. These repairs, with Gina's special materials and work bots, took the better part of the afternoon. He almost complained when she wouldn't let him up for a break, but one crack of that whip told him she meant business. He sat back on his knees and gave her a look as soon as he finished.

Gina stalked around the basement inspecting every square inch for the millionth time, looking for the slightest flaw in his work. "I suppose…it's adequate."

"Can I go?"

She glanced at the timer on the wall. "My lab is still damaged."

"I didn't break that." Ranma snapped.

"You almost leveled my newly built house. I don't care who broke what." She growled.

Ranma sighed. "Daishi and Ryoga did the damage."

"But this Ryoga, whom you launched through the house and into orbit isn't here. You are."

He laughed nervously and didn't see her eying him out of the corner of her eye. She was good at that kind of thing.

"I suppose I might let you go…" She hinted.

"What else do you want me to do?"

She frowned. "Do you really want to be taking that tone with me?"

"Aagh! Um, I'm sorry?" Ranma started to sweat.

"How do I know you actually mean that?" She huffed and tapped the folded up whip against the palm of her hand.

"Of course I mean it."

"You knew the house was just reconstructed and yet you nearly leveled it again. Even Brit won't do that kind of thing here."

"But Daishi…"

"Would have probably left on his own." She lied. Gina was starting to wonder just how far she could take this now that she had him right where she wanted him.

She stepped closer to him and knelt down. Now Gina likes to wear skintight clothing, even when she's on an excavation. So she was wearing her usual spandex clothing as she squatted before him, legs spread wide, resting on her toes. She smirked a little as he leaned back. His eyes were exactly where she wanted them.

"Um…" He gulped. Ranma really wanted to know what it was about girls that made them act so weird just when he thought he had figured them out a little.

"Maybe I should find a different way to punish you for the rest of the damage." She purred, just a hint of malice in her voice.

"No, I think I'll finish the repairs myself." Ranma muttered.

She thrust her chest out a little and watched his eyes grow a little wider. Her shirt allowed for a lot of cleavage to show. Combine that with the fact that she was just a little sweaty after all that supervising, so her breasts really caught his attention. "I think I have other plans now." With a tiny little push he fell back and she crawled over him.

Ranma cringed back as she hovered over him, her long blonde hair falling across his chest. He could hear his heart beating a little to loudly and wondered if she could hear it too. From the look on her face she must be hearing it. Then she went and leaned down just inches from his face and he could feel her breath on his cheek. He looked around desperately for a way to get out of this situation.

"I heard what you did to Brianna this morning. Such a naughty boy."

"Um…"

"I think you know what I want." Gina said, running her fingers over his chest.

Ranma squeaked and vanished from the basement in a flash of light. This left Gina hovering above the floor for a split second before gravity took over and she fell down. Rattling off a sting of cuss words, Gina took a minute to bang her head against the floor. Then with a sigh she slumped and slowly got to her feet and brushed her clothes off.

"I wasn't aware he knew how to do that yet. I'll have to have another look at daddy's training schedule I guess." Gina muttered to herself as she calmly walked out of the room and headed back upstairs. She took a second to tap a micro button on the rim of her glasses and watched as several maps flashed before her eyes.

Seconds later she had to grin a little wider. Ranma had run from her, right to the roof of her father's mansion just down the block. By the time she arrived at her lab she could tell that the damage wasn't as extensive as she thought earlier. She moved over to a terminal on the far side of the room and tapped a sequence of numbers on the keyboard.

A hologram filled the center of the room as she tapped into a couple of satellites. Within seconds she had her father's mansion displayed in the center of the room and could see Ranma laying on the roof looking confused. The boy really needed a reeducation in certain life facts. Pulling out her cell phone, she called the mansion.

"Mom?"

"Gina, how goes the plan?"

"There have been a few bumps, but everything is going to plan for the most part."

"What can I do for you?"

"Can you send Ranma home in about an hour?"

"Sure, I assume he's on the roof for a reason?"

"Yep." She said in amusement.

"Ah, we aren't going to have another rendition of Chase the Boyfriend are we?"

"Why what do you mean?" Gina said, trying to sound innocent.

"Séance still hasn't recovered from your attentions, then having to go through even more with Brianna." Julia said. "Just mentioning your names sends him into cold sweats."

Gina laughed. "Then he needs to build up some endurance."

This made Julia laugh, she knew all about chasing men. She did it, her mother did it, and her mother's mother even did so. It was a family tradition, Gina seemed to just chase more than one man around though. "I'll head up there and talk to him."

"Thanks mom."

oooooooooo

Lydia's cell phone started vibrating. Frowning, she glanced at Moisha and Romeo, who both looked a bit confused. All three were in the Digger's attic sitting in a circle. They were in their hybrid human/rat forms. Several dead pigs were scattered around them as well. Moving slowly, Lydia pulled her phone out. "Hello?"

"It's Gothwrain, why isn't the house a burning wreck?"

"Sir, something odd is going on in the house. Most of the diggers are gone or doing something in the living room."

"I don't like hearing excuses Lydia."

She shivered.

"I saw that the rock ninja was released, but hasn't done much damage."

"Julia's new student defeated him again."

"I suspected as much. Now what about the werecheetah?"

"We haven't been able to find her."

"Why?" His voice was ice cold.

"S-sir, we couldn't get into certain areas and continue to maintain stealth, so we've been waiting for things to quiet down."

"The werecheetah is injured. She should be easy to take out. Do it now, or else." The phone went dead and Lydia could only stare at it.

"Like that was harsh." Moisha muttered.

Romeo sighed. "We need to take her down or Gothwrain will kill us."

"I'm so tired of this crap." Lydia growled.

"We can't do anything about it Lyds." Moisha said.

"All we ever get is threats to our lives if we fail. We grew up with that crap, we trained with that bull$#!&, and now this. Putting the bell on the werecheetah's neck was enough. Almost getting caught at that airport was even worse."

Romeo nodded. "Gothwrain had Zero beat us for that."

"Then paying all that money back." Moisha shuddered. "We have to complete this mission."

"I just want to live in peace without the threat of death over my head." Lydia growled. She pulled a dagger out of her and stared at it.

Romeo and Moisha looked at each other. They weren't used to Lydia talking like this. The shorthaired wererat glanced at her two companions as she stood up and started pacing.

"Like, are we going to get the werecheetah?"

"No." Lydia decided. "I'm leaving."

"Leaving?" Romeo asked. He looked astounded.

Lydia nodded. "I just want to live in peace for a while, without the threat of death hanging over my head."

"But Gothwrain…"

"Forget him. I'm going to lie on a beach for the next two weeks and forget everything that's happened today." Lydia said and transformed into her rat form and raced out of the room through a hole in the wall. Romeo and Moisha were right on her tail.

Half a world away Gothwrain watched as his soldiers abandoned the house and took off. He didn't budge a muscle as they betrayed their oaths to him and the clan. This was exactly what he wanted them to do. His plans were going perfectly, with everyone doing exactly what he predicted they would. Now it was time to set in motion the next step of his plan.

oooooooooo

As the day progressed Ranma spent the afternoon sparing with Julia's two newest students, Luan and Carla. He found that dodging them was easy enough, but if he engaged them they would quickly overwhelm his defenses and send him flying across the yard. Luan he found, tended to draw him into subtle traps before she struck. Usually by locking her legs around his head, flipping them around, and tossing him to Carla.

Now blue haired Carla was a surprise. She was right in his face from the moment she attacked. They would dance around the yard attacking and counter attacking at blinding speeds. Both girls showed lots of acrobatic training as well as a grounding in Ninjitsu style.

Ranma was quite impressed by how serious the girls fought.

They gave everything they had and more. That was something most of his fights seemed to lack at times. Ranma had taken Ryoga out by using some of the very moves that Luan was using, a feint followed by a quick, but powerful attack. He'd fallen for it completely. Ranma also noticed from the way the girls moved that they were wary of his hands for some reason. Always keeping their bodies facing him even while they were in mid air.

He could also tell that they were quite good at Leep Palm style of martial arts. Julia's style just seemed to flow through them. Though he had to admit that Luan was better at the power blows used by the art. She got him in one of her traps and he landed two blocks away in some guys pool. After shaking himself off and a quick change back into a man, Ranma raced back and they started fighting all over again.

Julia watched from a nearby table. She could see Ranma improving on Leep style with every attack the girls made. Ranma just seemed to adapt instantly. Off to the side she had Gar going through several advanced forms that were even challenging his werecat reflexes. The forms were designed to be used by masters only, so she didn't expect him to get them anytime soon.

Some time later Julia clapped her hands and got everyone's attention. "That's enough for today. Gar, I want you working on those forms for the rest of the month. You need to feel them, not force them. Luan, you are doing quite well. Carla, you need to work on your hit strength, you have the speed down, but that's useless if you can't hit very hard."

The three students quickly headed into the house to get cleaned up. Julia noticed that Gar didn't even look in Ranma's direction and hadn't since the boy arrived a few hours before. "Ranma, you held up quite well. I noticed that you were giving Luan quite a challenge, she was getting frustrated."

Ranma nodded. "She seems to depend on the same attacks though. The same with Carla. Both girls seemed to keep repeating themselves as they fought. It was easy to pick up the patterns as they fought and block them. If I'd fought them for another half hour I think I would have been able to block anything they sent at me."

"I just got them as students. As for their attack style, they were training under Master Leep and he is a complete pervert. The girls have to always keep him in sight and certain body parts away from or else they were fair game."

"Ah." Ranma said. "Should I have tried to use a Ki attack against them?"

She shook her head. "Both of them know how to deflect a Ki attack. It's something you learn how to do learning under Master Leep."

"So, anything I need to do now?"

"Just get cleaned up and head back to Gina's house. She said that dinner would be done in about forty minutes."

"No problem."

Just as Ranma coming back downstairs, after borrowing Dr. Diggers shower, Ranma noticed that Sheila had come by. She turned and smiled at him. "Ranma, Gina said you can come home now and that she's not mad anymore."

He shrugged. "Good, I'm pretty hungry."

"There are a couple of guests at the house as well. You met them a few days ago on that Island." Sheila said. Gina had been kind of vague about the Island, just saying that it was more than it seemed and that she hadn't gotten enough time to explore something so large.

Ranma looked a little confused. "I thought those two were enemies or something? We did have to fight them a couple of times."

"Gina didn't say."

Julia shooed them outside. "Better get out of here or you'll miss dinner."

That got Ranma out of the house almost instantly. "Let's go!"

Sheila giggled as she grabbed his arm and steered him towards the sidewalk. "Well this should be interesting at least."

"Food." Ranma said and his stomach growled.

As they approached the house Ranma only had one thing on his mind, food. So he failed to noticed that there were several cars parked in the driveway and that the underground garage was open. He absently moved through the parked cars and made his way to the front door. Sundown was nearly over so very little light illuminated the sky.

Light shone from almost every window in the house and still Ranma didn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. Sheila just followed along behind him and looked amused. It was as if Ranma had a one-track mind. She smiled as Ranma opened door and stepped inside. Forty people stood in the front room and they all yelled, "SURPRISE!"

Ranma froze in place as he quickly noticed a bunch of people he didn't know standing under a banner that said 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY RANMA'

"What the F…" He started to say, but a laughing Sheila put her hand over his mouth.

"It's a party birthday boy."

He blinked. "Huh?"

Gina came forward, along with several others, with Nodoka at her side. "Your eighteen today Ranma, Happy Birthday."

If that didn't confuse him, he about ran for it when the older red headed woman stepped forward and gave him a super powered hug. "My son! Happy Birthday!"

Several people started to laugh at the look on his face, one of complete shock and a bit of panic.

"Um…"

Then with a naughty smirk, Gina reached up, pulled Ranma out of Nodoka's arms, and gave the birthday boy a kiss on the lips. She didn't let up for nearly two minutes and only broke the kiss to gasp for air. Giving him a wink, she licked her lips, and stepped back. Off to the side Nodoka grinned as her plan started to go into action. Gina and the other girls had been more than willing to go along with it.

Sheila spun Ranma around, transformed into her tall, busty, red headed human form, and tried to suck his tonsils out. By the time she finished Ranma couldn't seem to think straight and the girls were already lining up for their turn. Brianna took her turn next, giving his butt a good squeeze in the process. Penny jumped in, followed by Asrial, then Cheetah who gave him a kiss on the cheek and a wink.

The room was starting to blur a bit as Charlotte got her kiss in. Ranko, dressed in a tight fitting spandex outfit jumped in took her turn. Ranma stumbled back as she broke the kiss, but this allowed Itchi to get a kiss in as well. Giving him a well executed Stealth Goose just for letting her play. A shorthaired athletic girl stepped in and stuck her tongue into his mouth.

"Genn!" Gina yelled and chased the girl across the room.

Carla, Luan, and a tall girl in a leather outfit stepped forward and gave him a three way kiss. Once they were done Ranma was starting to think straight again and gave the three girls a look. Carla just smirked a little. "You know me and Luan, but this our friend Ayane. She was interested in meeting you after she heard you beat Ryan Tabbot."

"I'd nearly forgot about him." Ranma said, gaining a bit of his confidence back. Having a dozen girls standing around kissing you will do that.

"Ranma has always been a talented fighter." Ayane said.

It didn't take long for Ranma to realize that Ayane was wearing a pair of sunglasses to hide her eyes. He wasn't really thinking about that though, instead his eyes were drawn to her abs. They were on display and impossible not to notice. Suddenly a hand grabbed his elbow and spun him to the side.

"My turn." Mimi said as she wrapped herself around him.

"Mmmph!"

Blushing like a schoolgirl, Mimi ran from the room as several of the male guest started doing catcalls. Then a pair of massive breasts filled Ranma's vision and he looked up between the valley of cleavage just as Crush leaned down and took her turn. Danielle Carter, the Avenger (Pink Avenger), took over the instant Crush or Barbara Duncan was finished. By now Ranma was learning how to kiss back and the girls were enjoying it as much as he was.

Then Gina pounced on him from nowhere and took a second turn. This time Ranma managed to get her to really get into it. She was panting by the time she finished. Then much to Ranma's surprise Empress Lynn stepped in and out did Gina. As she broke away he noticed Kahn dragging her off to the other side of the room. He nodded at Ranma. Lynn looked extremely pleased with herself as she stuck her tongue out at Gina.

Turning to go and find a chair to sit down in, Ranma found himself standing before Agent Xane and Agent Will. Xane picked him up and bodily to give him another mind numbing kiss. She broke the kiss with a pop and smirked at him. "Not bad kid, you have potential."

Ranma couldn't form a coherent thought.

"So where's this cake?" Xane asked as she walked off.

"No sweats Xane, you had two dozen doughnuts for lunch." Will snapped.

Just as they left Ranma saw that there was another giant in front of him and looked up into the amused eyes of Monty. Ayane, who had brought the tall man over smirked. "This is Monty, he's one of Gina's friends."

"Aye lad, I've heard a bit about you from Gina."

"Nice to meet you?"

"You ever thought about fighting in the arena?" Monty asked.

"Arena?"

Ayane nodded. "Wrestling, and martial arts, for those fighters that have gone beyond the norm. We only fight the best."

"I've never heard of it." Ranma admitted.

"It can be quite fun and challenging." Monty admitted. "Ayane here has been trying to get Carla into the ring. There are various classes, if you have powers or are a really skilled fighter you can qualify for the higher ranks. You should come and see a few matches just to see if it's for you." Monty said and handed over a book of tickets. "Happy Birthday. Those tickets are for front row seats."

"Cool." Ranma said. He stuffed the tickets into his shirt.

"Rrraaannmmmaaa…." A voice moaned in his hear.

Half a second later Mimi was back for more and this time she pulled a Brianna and squeezed his butt. Off to the side Ranma saw Nodoka again and what she said to him earlier finally registered. He turned and walked over to the woman. "What did you mean by son?"

"You're my son." Nodoka said and gave him another hug. "You're so manly. So many girls that want to please you."

"Are you the one that set this up?"

Nodoka grinned and nodded. "I only want the best for my son."

"Where were you all this time?"

"That's a long story and not something that needs to be discussed on your birthday. I want to see my son enjoying himself." She said and handed him fifty count box of condoms with a little bow on it. "Have fun with the girls."

Ranma started sputtering.

"Oh, that sounds like so much fun." A female voice said and a pair of female arms wrapped around Ranma. "I can go for miles and miles, if you know what I mean." Genn sang.

"What?"

"Genn! Cut it out!" Brianna yelled and chased the shape changer off before she started taking Ranma's clothing off. "Blasted perv is on a roll tonight."

Now Ranma was starting to get really confused. Everyone seemed to think it was his birthday, some old lady claiming to be his mother wanted him to have sex with the girls, and all the girls were kissing him left and right. He was getting looks of jealously from every guy in the room too. It didn't take him long too decided that he needed to get out of there and think.

Several more girls ambushed him as he stood there. His face was getting covered in lipstick marks, though he didn't know it. One of the girls had pulled his shirt loose in the back as well. That was when Gina came back into the room with a large cake wheeled out on a mobile tray. Thanking god, Ranma headed for the food.

He was just a few steps away from the food he wanted so bad when Gina motioned for him to stop. "You need to do a couple of things before you can eat any of this Ranma."

Now he frowned. "I'm hungry."

She sighed and lit several candles. "You need to blow these out first. It's a tradition."

Now he was becoming frustrated and his stomach growled its own threat. It would not be denied. "What else."

Grinning naughtily, Gina just grinned. "You only have one eighteenth birthday Ranma. We, meaning all the girls, thought you needed to be educated about a few things now that you're old enough."

"Like what?"

"Well Brianna tried to jump the gun this morning with her little stunt, but for tonight you need become a man." She had 'that' glint in her eye that said 'fresh meat'.

Ranma gulped. "Hey now, no need to get…"

"I think it's a lovely idea Ranma." Nodoka said.

"You never mentioned anything about this Gina." Sheila said flatly.

"He can pick who he wants."

"Gina, baby, you can't mean it." Ryan appeared out of nowhere, but the blonde haired scientist ignored him.

"Well?" She asked Ranma.

"I…"

Several girls stepped towards Ranma. Feeling like a trapped animal, Ranma jumped to the ceiling and quickly crawled into the ceiling crawlspace and vanished from sight. Several of the girls sighed and looked towards Gina. The Blonde frowned and shook her head.

"I thought he would run for the door. I have that booby trapped."

Shrinking down into her hybrid form, Sheila grinned as she jumped up to the hole Ranma made and moved after him. Mimi quickly followed as well, much to her cat's astonishment. It made a mental note to get Mimi drunk on spiked punch more often.

"So now what sis?" Cheetah asked.

"I suppose we find him and drag him back. He still has presents to open."

"I don't think he's going to pick a girl."

Gina shrugged. "I was only teasing."

Cheetah rolled her eyes. "Yeah right, I know you Gina, you want him even more than Brianna does."

With a huff, Gina looked to the side. "Auntie, what do you say?"

"He's too shy." The older woman admitted. "It's so cute, but anyone of you can cure him of that…"

"Aghaaaa!"

Gina spun around. "That came from the kitchen!"

"Get off!"

Everyone ran over and looked in to see that Ranma and Sheila had fallen through the ceiling. Somehow Sheila had managed to rip most of Ranma shirt off and was latched onto him like an eel. All the girls drooled at the sight of Ranma's bare chest.

Nodoka took this opportunity to spike the punch a little more with her secret recipe. She figured that most of the girls were affected by the punch already. Mimi had downed at least six cups before Ranma even arrived.

Stepping into the kitchen, Gina pulled Sheila off of Ranma. "Thanks for catching him. Now Ranma, you need to blow out the candles on the cake and open your presents."

The boy sat up, making half the girls sigh, and eyed Gina. "What about the other stuff?"

"We can skip that if you want."

He sighed in relief.

"Now come back to the party."

Blowing the candles out was easy enough. Once that was done Nodoka handed Ranma some punch and led him over to the front room where a small stack of presents sat on the coffee table. "What do I do with these?"

"They're presents."

Ranma just looked confused. "So? The only presents I ever got were empty sake bottles tossed at me when pops went on a bender."

"Just open them." Gina growled.

"Feh."

Most of them were relatively small…someone was rubbing their head against his butt and purring. Ranma looked down and half a second later Genn launched out of the roof in a hale of shingles. Huffing, Ranma sat down and grabbed the first present.

"A bag of peanuts?" He blinked.

"That's from me!" Charlotte admitted with a giggle. "They're so gooood."

"Um, thanks."

Charlotte did a little happy dance, which amused Penny and Ace. They were sitting next to the girl.

His next present was a ball of yarn. "What the heck?" Then Cheetah was next to him looking at the yarn with wide sparkling eyes.

"It's so stringy…"

"Cheetah!" Gina yelled as the girl stole the yarn and raced out of the room.

Ranma's eye started to twitch a little. Ripping the paper off the next package, he opened a slightly heavy box to find several magic books from Dr. Diggers. "These will be fun to read."

"Oooh, pretty books." Yomiko breathed as she appeared at Ranma's side. "Can I read them?"

"Um, they're written a special language that only a mage can translate." Ranma explained, pointing out several odd words. Yomiko appeared to be blushing as she reached for a book.

"They're calling to me."

"Eh…" Ranma started, but Dr. Diggers appeared behind him.

"Ranma?" The Aura Mage growled, startling Ranma. The man smirked around his pipe. "What's I hear about you trying to do things to my daughters?" His fiery demon head flared up, eyes narrowed, and he growled evilly.

Of course Yomiko ignored him completely as she suddenly handed Ranma and encyclopedia set, blushed, gave him a quick kiss. Giggling, she ran off, leaving Ranma sitting on the floor looking confused. The stack of books fell over as he shook his head. What the hell was with the girls around the house today?

Julia swatted her husband across the back of the head. "Cut that out. Here Ranma, I had this made for you a few days ago."

In her hand was an elaborate very well made Katana blade. He took it and examined the blade a little closer. The weapon was actually combat ready. "Thank you."

"You welcome. Learning how to use it properly should keep you occupied for the next few weeks."

Carla and Luan ambushed him suddenly and stole another kiss. They ran off giggling as Ranma growled in frustration and blushed. The rest of the room laughed as he turned back to the table and picked up another small package and ripped the paper off.

"Huh?"

"You can never have to many of those." Nodoka said with a glint in her eye."

Ranma's was starting to think his mother was a complete pervert. He'd never met a female pervert before, but that was the only way to describe the strange woman. "Um, whatever."

"We'll have to talk later, but for now, enjoy your party. We have all night."

Brianna used her foot to scoot a slightly larger present towards him. She grinned a little. "You should like that one."

Opening the box slowly, he found himself staring at something he didn't ever expect to see again. "B?"

"Hey $#&hole, how's it hanging?" B asked as he slowly rose out of the box and hovered in front of him.

"I completely rebuilt him." Brianna explained. That bracer you wore survived so I was able to download his whole personality into his new and improved body. Right now he has three modes that you can use at any time, flight, ground, or water mode. Each one comes with it's own special weapon."

"Hey cool, I actually missed the little guy."

"#$&" B growled as he flew around the room.

"Even his mouth."

As B entertained himself, Ranma grabbed the next present. He held up a medallion about the size of a half dollar. "Hmm…"

"That's a good luck charm." Mimi tells him. "It's from me, Asrial, and Itchi. It's the real deal too. It'll help you out when you least expect it too."

Ranma could see the magical energies swirling around the little object with his magical senses. "Thanks."

Mimi blushed and drank some more punch. Her head was feeling so fuzzy all of a sudden and she couldn't figure out why her familiar Aloysius was snickering at her from under the chair.

"These are some great presents." Ranma said as he grabbed the last one. The box was a little small, but he was just confused as he pulled out a computer chip.

"That's mine." Gina piped up. Ryan was sitting a few feet away looking like someone kicked his dog. "I saw that Brianna was fixing B up for you, we all have a Peebo from her, so I thought I'd help out a bit. That chip can be put in your computer bracer and it will enhance its abilities a hundred fold. I just need to install it."

"Cool."

From there the party was normal enough. Everyone had cake and ice cream while they played around. Monty slapped Ryan around during a spar. Ayane slapped Ryan around too, much to his embarrassment. By the time the party ended a couple of hours later Ranma was on his fifth cup of punch and feeling a little woozy.

Gina took a few minutes to install the chip in his new and improved computer bracer. Along with monitoring B's status and hard drive, it also connected right into Gina's computer system, giving him access to her whole library of information. This included missions.

Julia showed him a few sword moves to memorize before their next sparing session. It was late when everyone started to leave. Ranma didn't noticed this of course, he was to busy practicing with his new toys. Charlotte snatched the peanuts and vanished when Penny headed home. Ranma hoped she enjoyed them.

He was exhausted by the time Julia let him off for the night. After she headed home he headed inside and saw that the Gina's house bots were cleaning up the mess and returning every thing to normal.

"Where did you put my stuff?"

"In your room sir." House bot 7007 replied as he lifted the couch up and vacuumed under it.

"Cool, thanks."

Yawning, he headed upstairs, entered his room, and froze. Seconds later, from outside, Ranma tried to dive out the window. Only to have several arms, female arms, latch onto him and drag him back into the room. His scream was drowned out as the window shut, the curtains shut, and the lights went out.

oooooooooo

The End…For Now

End notes: Well didn't this take forever and a day to write up. This took quite a bit of effort to get it to this point and a lot of prodding from Gordon to finish it off. I hope everyone enjoys my ending there. Yes Ranma is getting what you think he is, will I reveal just who gets him? Eventually I will, but for now this is the end of the six month GD crossover arc of the story. It's nearly 60 pages of fun, fluff, and insanity.

What more do you need?

GO will continue, don't worry about that, but I'm kind of burned out on it right now and want to take a break from it to focus on a few other things without worrying about it in the back of my head. The next few things I post will probably be to finish off several stories, so keep an eye out.

CRose


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